With the Whistleblower Rewards Program, DOJ shows it is serious about rooting out and prosecuting crimes that harm free market competition.
On July 8, 2025, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division announced its first-ever Whistleblower Rewards Program. The Program creates a sizeable financial incentive for insiders and persons with knowledge to report unlawful price-fixing, bid rigging, and market allocation agreements among competitors. Under the Program, which is in partnership with the United States Postal Service, the Antitrust Division will offer financial rewards for individuals who provide qualifying information about antitrust crimes and related offenses. Qualifying whistleblowers can receive monetary rewards ranging between 15-30 percent of criminal fines recovered. These rewards could be substantial, as criminal convictions under the Sherman Act (one of the primary federal antitrust laws) can result in fines of up to $100,000,000 for corporations and up to $1,000,000 for individuals.
As part of the Whistleblower Rewards Program, the Antitrust Division established a dedicated portal by which whistleblowers and their counsel can submit reports of “original, detailed, and timely information” about potential antitrust crimes for evaluation and investigation. Eligible conduct includes criminal violations of the Sherman Act—such as wage- or price-fixing, bid rigging, market allocations, or monopolization. Also eligible are other federal criminal violations aimed at facilitating or concealing those crimes, or targeting or affecting federal, state, or local public procurement or the conduct of federal competition investigations or proceedings. Qualifying information must be original information voluntarily provided, must be unrelated to conduct about which the Antitrust Division (or its partners) already is aware, and must affect the U.S. Postal Service, its revenues, or property.
While antitrust crimes “often occur in secret,” Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater predicted the new Whistleblower Rewards Program would “create a new pipeline of leads from individuals with firsthand knowledge of criminal antitrust and related offenses that will help us break down those walls of secrecy and hold violators accountable.” The Program is designed to ferret out antitrust crimes and related offenses across all industries—“from healthcare to agriculture.”
Antitrust violations are serious matters. With the Whistleblower Rewards Program, DOJ appears to be serious about rooting out and prosecuting crimes that harm free market competition.
Detailed eligibility rules and reporting procedures for the Program are described in a Memorandum of Understanding between the Antitrust Division and its partners at the Postal Service and the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General.
If you have information about conduct that potentially violates the antitrust laws, the experienced antitrust counsel at Clarkson can help evaluate the issue, submit your report, and protect your rights throughout the detailed process.
