On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) voted 3-2 to issue a proposed final rule (“Final Rule”), which, absent a successful legal challenge, will ban most noncompete agreements in the United States. 

Despite more than 26,000 comments from the public, the Final Rule does not narrow the rule first proposed by the FTC

Today the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 to approve a Final Rule that, absent a successful legal challenge, will ban most noncompete agreements in the United States beginning 120 days after publication in the Federal Register.

Key provisions in the Final Rule are as follows:

  • New noncompetes
    • Banned for all workers, including “senior executives,” following

As recently foreshadowed, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) now appears poised to weigh in on whether noncompete agreements, even those that may be legal under state law, violate the National Labor Relations Act (“Act”).

Background: NLRB GC Targets Noncompetes

On May 31, 2023, Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memorandum stating

UPDATE: On January 13, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court granted applications to stay OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard pending review on the merits by the Sixth Circuit, and if writs of certiorari are subsequently sought to the U.S. Supreme Court, pending the Court’s disposition of such writs.  Click here to read more about the Court’s decision. 

It is not often that a United States Court of Appeals issues a decision on trade secrets, much less one involving the review of a bench trial that drew legal conclusions on the scope of trade secret law and the propriety of compensatory and punitive damages.  On April 30, 2020, in Advanced Fluid Sys., Inc.

On August 10, 2018, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed into law a bill making significant reforms to Massachusetts’ law regarding non-compete agreements, as well as adopting the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“UTSA”) (joining 48 other states as well as DC in adopting the UTSA at least in part, and leaving New York as the lone