Read Our Joint Submission (Signed by 100 Lawyers) on the FTC’s Proposed Non-Compete Ban
The comment period for the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed Non-Compete Ban ended on April 19, 2023.
We were proud to join a submission drafted by our friends Russell Beck and Erika Hahn, signed by 100 attorneys around the country who practice heavily in trade secret and restrictive covenant law.
You can read the full submission here.
In summary, we raised these key points:
There remain significant misunderstandings and misperceptions about the use of non-compete agreements.
Trade secret law and other restrictive covenants are insufficient to protect businesses (and their employees) from unfair competition.
The FTC’s proposal to cancel what it estimates to be 30 million contracts overnight would be unprecedented and could create chaos in the economy and judicial system.
The research on which the FTC relies is underdeveloped at best and potentially misleading at worst.
Any federal regulation should be judicious and tailored to specific abuses of non-competes.
Now that the comment period is over, we wait to see what the FTC will do. If it moves forward with the proposed Ban, litigation will surely follow.
In the meantime, we have over 100 bills in the Bill Tracker that would impact this area of law at the state level, and we summarize new cases from state and federal courts every day in the Daily Rundown.
