THE FTC, Noncompete Ban, and the Recent Ruling

Lawyer 2 Lawyer

On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission issued a final rule to “ promote competition by banning noncompete agreements nationwide, protecting the fundamental freedom of workers to change jobs, increasing innovation, and fostering new business formation.” Noncompetes are agreements that prohibit workers from leaving their employers to join a competitor or start a rival business for a specific period of time.

However, the ban has been met with opposition. On August 14th, a federal judge in Florida ruled against the FTC’s proposed ban on most noncompete agreements. Back in July, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas temporarily blocked the FTC’s new rule. On August 20, 2024, U.S. District Judge Ada Brown found that the FTC lacked the statutory authority to issue the rule, set to go into effect on September 4th, 2024, blocking the rule nationwide.

In this episode, Craig is joined by Sandeep Vaheesan, the legal director at the Open Markets Institute, as they discuss the Federal Trade Commission's ban of noncompete agreements. Craig & Sandeep look at the recent court rulings to block the FTC's ban, the impact of the ban, and what this new ruling by Judge Brown means.

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