In September 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) took steps to crack down on anticompetitive employee non‑competes even as the FTC abandoned the Biden Administration’s efforts to broadly ban them by rule.  As a first step, on September 4, 2025, the FTC launched an inquiry seeking the public’s input on the prevalence and use of non-competes by employers, stating that “[w]ith the assistance of the employees and workers most burdened by them, the Trump-Vance FTC intends to uproot the worst offenders and restore fairness to the American labor market.”  The next day, the FTC filed a consent decree in an unfair competition action against Gateway Services, Inc. and a subsidiary, premised on its employee non-compete agreements.  The consent decree requires Gateway to stop enforcing non-competes binding its nearly 1800 workers.  On September 10, FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson issued warning letters to several undisclosed healthcare companies and staffing agencies for “includ[ing] noncompete agreements … in employment contracts that may unreasonably limit employment options for vital roles like nurses, physicians, and other medical professionals.”  And, on September 17, the FTC announced a workshop focused on “Protecting Workers from Anticompetitive Noncompete Agreements.” The workshop was to be held on October 8 but has been delayed because of the federal government shutdown.Continue Reading FTC Again Targets Unfair Employee Non-Competes