Noncompete agreements remain one of the most contested areas of employment law in the United States. With federal efforts to ban noncompetes stalled and a patchwork of state laws expanding rapidly, employers need a clear understanding of the current landscape. This post provides an overview of the current status of noncompete law at both the federal and state levels.
The FTC’s 2024 Rulemaking and Its Demise
The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) effort to ban noncompetes nationwide began in April 2024, when it issued a final rule broadly prohibiting them. Opponents quickly sued, and in August 2024 a federal court in Texas blocked the FTC from enforcing the rule nationwide. The agency appealed at first but, under Chair Andrew Ferguson, withdrew that appeal in September 2025, bringing the FTC’s nationwide ban effort to a close.
At present, no FTC nationwide noncompete ban is in effect. Under the Trump administration, the agency has moved away from broad rulemaking and instead has favored case-by-case enforcement. That shift has generated little meaningful activity so far — primarily one enforcement action involving a pet cremation company and warning letters to certain health care and staffing employers. That being said, the FTC continues to signal that it will keep scrutinizing noncompete agreements on a case-by-case basis, even without a nationwide ban.
The FTC did hold a workshop in January 2026 and solicit public comment, but those...
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