California law generally prohibits the enforcement of nonsolicitation agreements, but the law includes a narrow exception associated with the sale of a business. In Blue Mountain Enterprises, LLC v. Owen, a recent decision from the Court of Appeal of the State of California, First Appellate District, the appellate court upheld a ruling in favor of the buyer of a business under this exception.
In California, contractual provisions that prevent a person from engaging in a profession, trade, or business are generally void, according to Business and Professions Code section 16600. As the Supreme Court of California has noted, “section 16600 evinces a settled legislative policy in favor of open competition and employee mobility.”
California courts have ruled that this statute prohibits the enforcement of noncompetition agreements, customer nonsolicitation agreements, and perhaps even employee nonsolicitation agreements. While employers may often succeed in enforcing these types of restrictive covenants in other states, enforcement is not guaranteed in California.
But there is an important exception to this law. Section 16601 states: “Any person who sells the goodwill of a business, or any owner of a business entity selling or otherwise disposing of all of his or her ownership interest in the business entity … may agree with the buyer to refrain from carrying on a similar business within a specified...
South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare has announced strengthened measures to combat fraud in social service electronic vouchers. Last year, detected fraudulent claims reached 47.88 billion w...