US game devs celebrate as non-compete clauses, previously deemed 'a trash way to keep the talent', face a ban from the FTC—which would free up movement across the AAA industry
Workers from just about every industry in the US are celebrating a landmark announcement by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that, unless stopped, will ban non-compete clauses in around four months.
A non-compete is, in essence, a clause that dictates whether a worker can find employment (or create a product) that directly competes with their employer—even if they aren't working for them anymore. Typically, these will last around six months to a year after the end of employment, but they can last longer.
«Today, the Federal Trade Commission issued a final rule to promote competition by banning noncompetes nationwide, protecting the fundamental freedom of workers to change jobs, increasing innovation, and fostering new business formation,» reads an announcement on the FTC's website.
«Noncompetes often force workers to either stay in a job they want to leave or bear other significant harms and costs, such as being forced to switch to a lower-paying field, being forced to relocate, being forced to leave the workforce altogether, or being forced to defend against expensive litigation.»
This is, in a word, huge. While one could make the argument that a non-compete helps prevent trade secrets from being cross-pollinated between companies, as the FTC points out, there are already trade secret laws and NDAs in-place available that can be legally enforced.
Workers usually just find themselves hamstrung, having to seek employment in other industries or face legal challenges. As former Blizzard employee Chris Sayers wrote in February of this year: «I said I cant survive for 3 months without pay, I have a mortgage, and they looked me in the eye and said 'well, you probably shouldn't have signed the contract then.'»
Not only will the FTC's ban remove future non-competes, but it will also force companies to inform those under past non-competes that they «have to provide notice to workers bound to an existing noncompete that the noncompete agreement will not be enforced
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