Historic US Antitrust Whistleblower Payout Signals New Enforcement Era

The US Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the US Postal Service have made their first-ever whistleblower payment, awarding $1 million to an individual whose report exposed a criminal antitrust and fraud scheme in the used vehicle auction market. The case marks a watershed moment for US competition enforcement and materially strengthens incentives for insiders to report cartel conduct.

The whistleblower’s information led to charges against EBLOCK Corporation, an international operator of online vehicle auctions, culminating in a deferred prosecution agreement and a $3.28 million criminal fine. The payment is the inaugural award under the Antitrust Whistleblower Rewards Program, launched just six months earlier, and demonstrates that financial incentives for antitrust reporting are now fully operational.

According to court filings in the US District Court for the Central District of California, EBLOCK failed to halt anti-competitive practices after acquiring a rival platform in November 2020. From November 2020 to February 2022, employees at the acquired business colluded with a competing company to rig bids, suppress competition and inflate vehicle prices, in breach of the Sherman Act. The scheme also involved widespread shill bidding, constituting wire fraud, through the placement of fake bids designed to artificially raise auction prices.

The misconduct was technologically sophisticated and systemic. Conspirators shared confidential bidding information, granted unauthorised system access, coordinated inventory purchases, and deployed custom-built software to place fraudulent bids under the identities of legitimate auto dealerships without consent. Profits were pooled and split, while documentation supporting the scheme was transmitted through the US Mail, triggering the involvement of the US Postal Inspection Service.

US authorities have been explicit about the strategic significance of the reward. Senior Antitrust Division officials emphasised that whistleblowers now fundamentally alter the dynamics of cartel detection. While the Antitrust Division’s Leniency Program has historically incentivised companies to self-report, the availability of personal financial rewards accelerates the race to disclose misconduct, shifting leverage away from corporates and towards individual employees.

For compliance professionals and corporate boards, the implications are profound. The case underscores the heightened risk of delayed remediation following mergers and acquisitions, particularly where legacy systems and personnel remain in place. It also reinforces the necessity of proactive antitrust compliance programmes that extend beyond formal policy adoption to include effective monitoring, technology controls and rapid escalation mechanisms.

The deferred prosecution agreement requires EBLOCK to implement remedial compliance measures and to cooperate with ongoing investigations. However, the broader enforcement message extends well beyond this case. Federal law protects whistleblowers from retaliation, and awards of between 15 and 30 percent of collected fines are now available where recoveries exceed $1 million. This materially increases personal incentives for employees, advisers and third parties to report competition law breaches directly to regulators.

Taken together, the first $1 million antitrust whistleblower payout represents more than a symbolic milestone. It signals a more aggressive, intelligence-led enforcement environment in which cartels face growing exposure from within. For organisations operating in concentrated or platform-driven markets, the tolerance for complacency on competition compliance has decisively narrowed.

Read the press release here.