As usual, the freak-out on the Democratic side of the aisle over Joe Biden is the over-arching news for every policymaker in D.C. and globally. But I

Monopoly Round-Up: FTC Non-Compete Ban Survives a Texas Court, For Now

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2024-07-08 14:00:08

As usual, the freak-out on the Democratic side of the aisle over Joe Biden is the over-arching news for every policymaker in D.C. and globally. But I have nothing to add beyond what I noted last week. There is however plenty of news around monopoly power. And on that front, before I offer the weekly round-up, I want to highlight one item, which is something BIG has been covering since 2019. And that’s the fight over non-compete agreements, contractual provisions which prevent a worker from leaving his or her job and going to work for a rival.

There’s an extensive set of debates and policies over non-competes at a Federal and state level, since 30-40 million Americans are subjected to them in what is uniformly understood to be excessive ways. While a lot of the policy is happening at a state level, the Federal Trade Commission under Chair Lina Khan has sought to use its authority to ban unfair methods of competition by writing a regulation barring most of these contracts nationwide.

Over the past five years, first under Trump and then under Biden, the FTC held workshops, collected tens of thousands of comments and assembled extensive economic literature. The commission then put out a proposed rule, and finalized it. This process takes years but is the essence of how to organize regulations in a complex economy. The rule is slated to go into effect on September 4th.