Last week, we provided an in-depth summary of Washington, D.C.’s anticipated overhaul to its 2021 overhaul of its noncompete law.
But, like so much legislation, amendments are not necessarily final, even when passed. Sometimes amendments are made to amendments. And, no surprise, the amendment overhauling the last overhaul was itself amended just after it passed.
As a result, the final bill is now exactly as previously explained, but exempts “broadcast employees.”
Broadcast employees are defined as “on- or off-air creator[s] (such as an anchor, disc jockey, editor, producer, program host, reporter, or writer) of a legal entity that owns or operates” a tv network, a radio or cable station or network, or “[s]atellite-based services similar to a broadcast station or network” or “[a]ny other entity that provides broadcasting services such as news, weather, traffic, sports, or entertainment programming.)
With that amendment, broadcast industry employees in D.C. will be exempt from noncompetes, regardless of how much they earn. The reason was that those employees had previously been exempt from noncompetes and the anticipated change would have reversed that, so this amendment reverses that reversal.
Finally, with that fix, the bill was transmitted to D.C. Mayor Bowser yesterday (July 21, 2022). Her response is due on August 4, 2022.
*Thank you to Erika Hahn for continuing to track the convoluted course of this law. Photo credit: David Mark.