As many of you may have heard by now, on April 23, 2024, almost exactly one year after it set forth its Proposed Rule regarding Non-Compete Clauses, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a pre-publication version of its final Non-Compete Clause Rule (the “Final Rule”). Barring judicial interference, the Final Rule will likely go into effect in August (120 days after it is published in the Federal Register).
As expected, the Final Rule bans nearly all non-compete agreements between employers and
workers – including employees, independent contractors, and even unpaid workers. Indeed, under the Final rule, an employer generally will be prohibited from entering or attempting to enter into a non-compete with a worker, maintaining a noncompete with a worker, or representing to a worker that the worker is subject to a noncompete. The Final Rule will also require employers to cease enforcement of existing non-competes (aside from agreements with senior executives, as we will explain below) and actively inform workers that existing non-compete clauses will no longer be enforced. The FTC will provide model language to help employers comply with the notification requirements.
Last year, during the Proposed Rule’s review process, our Labor and Employment team submitted comments on behalf of a coalition of businesses requesting certain revisions to the Proposed Rule. We realized that the Proposed Rule was going to be passed in some way, shape, or form. Thus, we submitted extremely focused comments, in which we advocated for only three substantive revisions to the Proposed Rule: (i) that the sale of business exemption should not be limited to those with a 25% ownership but rather should apply to all business owners; (ii) that the Proposed Rule should not apply retroactively; and (iii) that the Proposed Rule should exclude executives, highly paid employees, highly skilled employees, and those with access to a company’s confidential information. Although we will never know for sure how much weight the FTC gave to our comments, there is no disputing that a significant portion of these desired outcomes were achieved. Continue reading
The outcome of this case will be crucial for all places of public accommodations, even those outside the hotel context, such as restaurants, stores, and other retail establishments. Indeed, this case has the potential to determine whether it becomes significantly easier or more difficult for plaintiffs to bring viable ADA lawsuits against any type of company whose business is open to the public, regardless as to whether the allegations relate to websites or more traditional “brick and mortar” barriers to access.
The initial iteration of the law, titled the “District of Columbia Ban on Non-Compete Agreements Amendment Act of 2020 (the “Act”), prohibited employers from requiring employees who perform work in Washington D.C. (or a prospective employee whom the employer reasonably anticipated would perform work in Washington, DC), from signing any agreement that included a non-compete provision. The Act also made it unlawful for employers to have any workplace policy prohibiting employees from (i) being employed by another person; (ii) performing work or providing services for pay for another person; or (iii) operating their own business. In other words, the Act rendered virtually all non-compete provisions unenforceable and forbade employers from instituting workplace policies, such as anti-moonlighting rules, that limit employees’ ability to work for other people or start their own business.
In October 2020, we published a 
We have been blogging for more than five years about the rising litigation threat over website accessibility, and the surrounding confusion about what type of compliance, if any, is required. In our 
In one bit of good news however, federal courts have begun to push back on lawsuits brought by serial plaintiffs under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) during the last several months based on those plaintiffs’ lack of standing. This is a much needed development for hotel owners and operators, who hope that this trend will continue into 2021 and beyond.