{"id":11090,"date":"2023-04-19T10:49:48","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T14:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/env-8605394.mightybox.site\/?post_type=news&p=11090"},"modified":"2024-10-01T11:51:13","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T15:51:13","slug":"techserve-files-comments-on-ftc-proposed-non-compete-ban","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/techservealliance.org\/news\/techserve-files-comments-on-ftc-proposed-non-compete-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"TechServe Files Comments on FTC Proposed Non-Compete Ban"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On April 19, 2023, TechServe Alliance CEO Mark Roberts filed comments<\/a> on Federal Trade Commission proposals to regulate non-compete agreements. The FTC would retroactively ban all non-compete agreements between employers and workers. TechServe joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other organizations questioning whether the FTC Act provided authority to regulate non-competes in this manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Proposed Rule is limited to employer-employee relationships and generally does not impact business-to-business negotiated non-competes where neither business qualifies as a worker nor impacts non-competes agreed upon for the sale of a business. However, the ban would extend to \u201cde facto\u201d noncompete agreements, defined as other restrictive clauses drafted so broadly that they are, in effect, a non-compete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TechServe members generally do not use non-competes but instead use other restrictive covenants to protect proprietary information and prevent solicitation of the former employers\u2019 clients or the recruitment of the former employer\u2019s workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts expressed concern about the de facto provisions, \u201cThe Proposed Rule provides limited guidance on when a non-solicitation or other agreement would be considered a de facto non-compete. This is not enough to ensure that companies can be confident they can use these provisions to protect confidential information and business resources without running afoul of the rule.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TechServe\u2019s comments<\/a> also objected to the sale-of-business exemption allowing non-competes. The exemption would require a seller to be a substantial owner, defined as 25% ownership. TechServe urged the FTC to eliminate any percentage. Finally, TechServe urged the FTC to withdraw the proposed rule or submit several changes, including removing the provision that bans non-competes retroactively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employer organizations and business groups plan to sue the FTC to block the Final Rule; with over 15,000 comments to review, the rule may not be finalized until next year. For more information, read TechServe\u2019s comments<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","topics":[44,39],"news-topics":[],"member-content":[],"class_list":["post-11090","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","topics-legal-legislative","topics-compliance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techservealliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/11090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techservealliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techservealliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techservealliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techservealliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=11090"},{"taxonomy":"news-topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techservealliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topics?post=11090"},{"taxonomy":"member-content","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techservealliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/member-content?post=11090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}