Given all of our growth opportunities, this is an excellent time to remind everyone of the laws and rules around competition in the market. Everyone must know the law, especially if you interact with competitors as part of your job. The government has laws in place, called anti-trust laws, to prevent businesses like ours from limiting, restricting, or eliminating competition in the market. For example, you should never discuss prices with competitors – price fixing, where you decide to set prices with your competitors – is illegal. Dividing territories, an agreement where two companies agree to stay out of each other’s way and reduce competition is another example of anti-competitive behavior. Not only should a company not divide customers with other competitors (for example, you take customers in this region and I’ll take them here), but you should not make agreements with competitors not to hire each other’s employees either (for example, I won’t hire your techs if you don’t hire mine) – the labor market is a market protected by anti-trust laws as well. We must also avoid “bid rigging” (I won’t bid on Project A that you are bidding on if you stay away from bidding on Project B). We will have more training on this topic in the coming months, but if you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch with your manager. When in doubt – ask!