The U.S. Chamber of Commerce met the Federal Trade Commission’s late April announcement that it would ban all future employee noncompete agreements with a simple, uncompromising declaration: See you in court.
“The Federal Trade Commission’s decision to ban employer noncompete agreements across the economy is not only unlawful but also a blatant power grab that will undermine American businesses’ ability to remain competitive,” charged Chamber President Suzanne P. Clark in a statement.
Clark promised that her organization would “sue the FTC to block this unnecessary and unlawful rule and put other agencies on notice that such overreach will not go unchecked.”
In a rare regulatory move, the final FTC rule against noncompetes went further than the original proposal. The agency explained that “existing noncompetes for the vast majority of workers will no longer be enforceable after the rule’s effective date,” about four months from now.
The agency allowed that existing C‑suite noncompetes “can remain in force.” However, barring judicial intervention, once the rule takes effect, “employers are banned from entering into or attempting to enforce any new noncompetes, even if the …