Over the last several years, business-to-business “no-hire” and “no-poach” agreements have come under legal attack, including through enforcement actions by the Federal Trade Commission and criminal prosecutions by the U.S. Department of Justice. Even President Biden jumped into the fray on July 9, 2021, when he issued his “Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy.”
On August 31, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a notable and concerning decision involving a “no-hire agreement” between franchisees and their franchisor. In Arrington v. Burger King Worldwide, Inc., the Eleventh Circuit reversed a Florida district court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit filed by former employees of several Burger King franchises who had challenged the no-hire agreement contained within Burger King’s franchise agreements as an unlawful restraint of trade under the Sherman Act. Although Burger King purportedly removed the no-hire language from new franchise agreements beginning in September 2018, that language existed in the older franchise agreements governing the franchised restaurants where the plaintiffs were employed.
In their lawsuit against Burger King, the plaintiffs argued that the agreements, in which Burger King franchisees agreed not to hire employees of Burger King or any of its franchisees for six months post-employment, were an unlawful restraint of trade because...
Patrick Brown has been mayor for almost eight years and one of the many promises he has failed to keep is the one that angers Brampton voters more than any other. For almost a decade he has claime...