[Update: On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 to issue its final noncompete rule, with only a few changes from the proposed rule. Analysis of the final rule, the changes, and what may come next are discussed in this blog post.]
On April 16, 2024, the FTC announced that it will hold a special Open Commission Meeting on April 23, 2024 to vote on its proposed rule to ban the use of non-compete clauses in employment contracts, which has been pending since January 2023.
As we reported then, the proposed rule, as drafted, would prohibit employers throughout the United States ...
On May 17, 2023, U.S. Senator Rob Wyden (D-OR) announced the release of a long-awaited report on the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s multi-year investigation into the use of noncompete agreements across the U.S. labor market. In announcing the release, Senator Wyden said that the GAO report “highlights the problems of noncompete agreements – particularly their impact on limiting workers’ fundamental freedom to change jobs,” and pledged to “fight tooth and nail for fair labor laws that protect workers and promote the creation of new businesses in Oregon and nationwide.”
The National Labor Relations Board’s top lawyer, Jennifer Abruzzo, issued a General Counsel memo today instructing the Labor Board’s Regional Directors of her position that noncompete clauses for employees protected by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) (i.e., nonmanagerial and nonsupervisory employees) in employment contracts and severance agreements violate federal labor law except in limited circumstances. The memo, while not law, outlines her legal theory which she will present to the National Labor Relations Board, which makes law primarily through adjudication of unfair labor practice cases. The memo instructs the agency’s field offices of the position that the General Counsel is instructing them to take when investigating unfair labor practice charges claiming that such clauses interfere with employees’ rights under the NLRA.
Blog Editors
Recent Updates
- Spilling Secrets Podcast: Beyond Non-Competes - IP and Trade Secret Assessment Strategies for Employers
- Spilling Secrets Podcast: Wizarding and the World of Trade Secrets
- Two Appeals To Determine Fate of FTC’s Noncompete Ban
- NLRB General Counsel Calls for Crack Down and Harsh Remedies for Non-Competes and “Stay or Pay” Provisions
- Pennsylvania Plaintiff That Failed in Effort To Block FTC Noncompete Ban Drops Lawsuit