This week, the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 to ban non-compete agreements. The FTC estimates that nearly one in five U.S. workers is subject to non-compete agreements, but these agreements are a big problem in Silicon Valley because they are unenforceable in California. do not have.
This is perhaps one of the region's competitive advantages, allowing employees (in most cases) to start something new without having to worry about having to fight their former employer in court for years to come. Because you can.
This ban allows the FTC to extend the same freedom to employees across the United States. In fact, the commission claims this will result in 8,500 new startups per year and an additional 17,000 to 29,000 patents per year.
A few caveats: This rule only applies to non-compete agreements and not non-disclosure agreements, so even if a former employee is accused of divulging trade secrets by his or her former company, there will be no legal issues. you may get caught up in it. The FTC also said that most existing non-competes are no longer legally enforceable, but that existing non-competes against senior executives remain in effect.
Most importantly, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced that it will sue the FTC over this rule, arguing that the agency lacks the legal authority to issue such regulations.
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