Can Non-Compete Agreements Lead To Jail Time?

Quick Hits

• The U.S. Department of Justice secured a guilty plea from a healthcare staffing company in a wage-fixing conspiracy case brought under the Sherman Antitrust Act.
• The Justice Department's prosecution, which centered on the defendant company's misuse of a no-poach agreement with a competitor, was part of the renewed, bipartisan effort at the federal level to crack down on non-compete agreements.
• President Biden's Executive Order No. 14036, "Promoting Competition in the American Economy," issued on July 9, 2021, called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to "curtail the unfair use of non-compete clauses and other clauses or agreements that ... unfairly limit worker mobility." In January 2023, the FTC proposed a rule that would ban non-compete clauses in employment contracts.