On March 15, 2025, the Fifth Circuit granted the FTC’s motion for a 120-day stay of the agency’s appeal of the district court decision to block its proposed ban on non-competes. The Eleventh Circuit followed suit on March 20, 2025, granting the FTC’s similarly filed motion for 120 days.
Both motions by the agency cited the Trump/Vance Administration change stating that on January 20, 2025, President Trump designated Commissioner Andrew N. Ferguson as Chairman of the Commission. The motions address the newly appointed chairman’s public statements in which he declared he believes the Commission should reconsider the non-compete ban stating, “My view is that the Commission… basically needs to decide whether it’s a good idea [and] it’s in the public interest to continue defending this rule… I’m going to be presenting at some point” to “my colleagues the decision about whether to continue defending this Rule.” See FTC’s Motion to Hold Appeal in Abeyance for 120 days (citing The Harvard Salient, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson & Harvard Law Professor Adrian Vermueule: CORE Conference 2025, at 35:17-:40, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty3szjLQFk).
Chairman Ferguson has now announced the formation of a new Joint Labor Task Force suggesting that the FTC will take an individual approach in prosecuting abusive non-compete agreements. In a memorandum addressed to the Directors of the Bureau of Competition, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Bureau of Economics, and Office of Policy Planning, Chairman Ferguson stated that the Joint Labor Task Force would be responsible for investigating and prosecuting unfair and abusive non-competes and that working Americans are “harmed by deceptive, unfair, and anti-competitive employer labor practices.”
Further, on April 10, 2025, the Senate approved Mark Meador as FTC Commissioner, who at his approval hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee in February stated that non-compete agreements have been “overused and abused.”
That being said, while the FTC motions granted by the Fifth and Eleventh circuits stated that this new administration needs time to reconsider its view on non-competes, it appears, at least for now, its Chairman and Commissioner have doubled down on the belief that abusive and unfair non-competes should ultimately be banned, but that the Joint Labor Task will take an individual approach instead of enforcing a blanket ban.
