Courts grant FTC’s pause of noncompete appeals

As you will remember, on March 7, 2025, the FTC filed a Motion to Hold Appeal in Abeyance for 120 Days in both appeals, the appeal of the Texas District Court’s summary judgement decision in Ryan LLC and the appeal of the Florida District Court’s preliminary injunction decision in The Properties of the Villages, Inc.

Both motions have been granted.

The 5th Circuit’s order (issued on March 12) states, “IT IS ORDERED that Appellant’s unopposed motion to stay further proceedings for 120 days from the date of this order and provide a status report upon the culmination of the stay is GRANTED.” Accordingly, the FTC must provide a status report to the Court by July 10, 2025. 

The 11th Circuit’s order (issued on March 20) states, “The motion to stay the appeal for 120 days is GRANTED. The movant is DIRECTED to file a status report with the Court regarding future steps in the case, with the status report due 120 days after the date of this order.” Accordingly, the FTC must provide a status report to the Court by July 18, 2025. 

Status of the FTC

Of course, on March 18, while that was all happening, President Trump removed Commissioners Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya (the two Democrats) from office.

That same day, FTC Chair Ferguson issued the following statement: 

President Donald J. Trump is the head of the executive branch and is vested with all of the executive power in our government. I have no doubts about his constitutional authority to remove Commissioners, which is necessary to ensure democratic accountability for our government. The Federal Trade Commission will continue its tireless work to protect consumers, lower prices, and police anticompetitive behavior.

I wish Commissioners Slaughter and Bedoya well, and I thank them for their service.

Since that time, both dismissed Commissioners have indicated that they intend to challenge their termination.

In the meantime, the FTC can continue to operate with its two remaining Commissioners, Melissa Holyoak and Chair, Andrew Ferguson. And, as reflected in Chair Ferguson’s February 26 Directive, we can expect that they will pursue individual cases against companies where noncompetes are, in the FTC’s view, abusive or otherwise deceptive, unfair,  anticompetitive, or unscrupulous. As previously noted, I expect those to include:

• B2B no-poach agreements (by whatever name), as opposed to reasonable B2E (business-to-employee) nonsolicitation agreements;
• Companies using noncompetes for employees who clearly should not have them; and
• Companies using truly unfair training repayment agreements (pejoratively called “TRAPs”), and similar agreements.

In addition, Mark R. Meador, who was nominated as the 5th Commissioner, is pending confirmation by the Senate. In connection with that, Mr. Meador issued brief written remarks. We now wait to see if he will be confirmed. The smart money says he will be. 

So much happening!

Stay tuned.

Firm resources: 

We know how hard it is to keep up with the ever-changing laws and requirements around the country for how you can protect your trade secrets, customer goodwill, and the integrity of your workforce. To help, we have created the resources below (available for free). Each chart is regularly updated to reflect the latest developments. 

	50-State Noncompete Law Chart, the first of its kind and regularly updated (downloadable PDF) (to be updated for the new exemptions in Illinois and Pennsylvania)50-State and Federal Trade Secret Law Chart, providing a comparison of the trade secrets laws nationally to the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (downloadable PDF)
	Chart of Noncompete “Low-Wage” Thresholds and Criteria (downloadable)
	Notice requirements summary chart, providing details for each of the 8 states (plus D.C.) that has notice requirements related to noncompetes (downloadable PDF)
	“Changing Trade Secrets | Noncompete Laws” (dedicated blog page) now provides a current detailed summary of the changing landscape of trade secret laws and noncompete laws around the country, state by state and at the federal level
	Trade secret and other legitimate business interest protection plan strategy and checklist

We hope you find all of these resources useful. More will be coming.

And please note, we are grateful for all of the input we’ve received over the years. We welcome any suggestions for improvements that you may be willing to share.