Trade Secret Disputes in a World Without Noncompetes: A Brief Exploration
An article co-authored by Marie McKiernan, Animesh Giri (The Brattle Group), April Dang (The Brattle Group) titled “Trade Secret Disputes in a World Without Noncompetes: A Brief Exploration” was published in Business Law Today. Millions of working Americans (approximately one in five) are subject to noncompetes—that is, legal agreements that restrict employees from activities that increase competition for their employers. In June 2024, just months after the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) voted to implement a nationwide ban on the use of noncompete agreements, the US Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling that overturned Chevron deference—a forty-year-old doctrine that had previously required courts to defer to federal agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous statutes. In August 2024, a district court ruled that the FTC could not implement its proposed ban; the FTC is considering appealing this decision.
Despite the rulings against the FTC’s authority, a key economic question for both sides of the emerging legal dispute concerns the potential consequences of a nationwide noncompete ban. Read more.
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