ICLE Statement on the FTC’s Noncompete Rule
PORTLAND, Ore. (April 23, 2024) – The International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) offers the following statement in response to today’s vote by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to adopt a rule banning all new noncompete clauses in employment contracts and rendering existing noncompetes unenforceable for all but senior executives.
This first quote can be attributed to ICLE Senior Scholar Daniel Gilman:
There are legitimate policy concerns about many noncompete agreements, but such agreements–and the business contexts in which they are adopted–are far from uniform. By today’s purely partisan vote–and despite varied, active, and ongoing state-policy reform on noncompetes–the FTC adopts a sweeping rule that goes way beyond its statutory authority, just as Commissioners Melissa Holyoak and Andrew Ferguson pointed out.
And the following quote can be attributed to ICLE Chief Economist Brian Albrecht:
Public policy requires a proper weighing of the costs and benefits of any decision. Instead of recognizing the tradeoffs and differences among workers and companies, this final rule from the FTC banning noncompetes for everyone–even for senior executives–rejects that balancing.
For more on the topic, see ICLE’s comments to the FTC, as well as Dan Gilman’s recent paper on physician noncompete agreements. To schedule an interview with Brian, Dan, or other ICLE scholars about the topic, contact ICLE Media and Communications Manager Elizabeth Lincicome at (919) 744-8087 or [email protected],