On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) proposed an expansive new rule which would impose a near-complete ban on the use of non-competes (the “Proposed Rule”) by employers. The Proposed Rule is the culmination of the FTC’s recent efforts, following President Biden’s July 9, 2021 Executive Order on promoting competition in the economy, to enhance its scrutiny of anticompetitive practices and policies in the workplace. As a further sign of its priorities, just one day before issuing the Proposed Rule, the FTC announced enforcement actions against three companies claimed to have illegally imposed non-compete restrictions on security guards and glass manufacturing workers in violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.
