Consider implementing parts of the recent DOJ settlement, such as the appointment of an antitrust compliance officer and the training of senior management in the illegality of formal and informal non-poaching agreements. A proactive approach to freeing your company from these historic gentlemen`s agreements can avoid indictment at the federal level. In 2016, after careful consideration of the evidence, the UK High Court agreed that a gentleman`s agreement could be legally binding. Some types of agreements, such as employment contracts, must be in writing and therefore cannot be informal. Gentlemen`s agreements between industry and the U.S. government were common in the 1800s and early 1900s. The Bureau of Corporations, the predecessor of the Federal Trade Commission, was founded in 1903 to investigate monopolistic practices. A gentlemen`s agreement or gentleman`s agreement is an informal, non-legally binding agreement between two or more parties. It is usually oral, but it can be written or simply understood as part of a tacit agreement by convention or mutually beneficial label. The essence of a gentlemen`s agreement is that it relies on the honor of the parties for its fulfillment, rather than being enforceable in any way. It is different from a legal agreement or contract.

The term “Gentleman`s Agreement” appears in the archives of the British Parliament of 1821. It also appears in the Massachusetts Public Records from 1835. Gentlemen`s agreements were a widespread discriminatory tactic that would have been more common than restrictive alliances to maintain the homogeneity of upper-class neighborhoods and suburbs in the United States.