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February 3, 2026
By Ted W. Williams

Back in April of 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted that non-competition clauses in employment agreements, outside of certain narrow exceptions, were going to be considered unenforceable as an unfair restraint on trade (the so-called “Non-Compete Clause Rule”). This decision made headlines as a major development for both employees and employers who prepared for a world where non-competes would become a thing of the past, but much less noise was made when the FTC’s ruling was challenged, blocked, and quietly withdrawn.

The FTC’s rule never actually become law, as its implementation was halted by a federal court in Texas in August of 2024 (Ryan v. FTC) citing that the FTC lacked the delegated authority from Congress to create the Non-Compete Clause Rule, and that such a rule was far too broad. The FTC appealed this decision to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, but, in September of 2025, the FTC issued a press release stating that it intended to withdraw its appeal and accept that the Non-Compete Clause Rule would not become law.

If the Non-Compete Clause Rule never went into effect, where does that leave the enforceability of non-competition provisions and restrictive covenants more broadly? It is back to business as usual as to how these types of contract provisions are dealt with based on the laws of each state, namely the state in which the employee is located. As is the case with many areas of the American legal system, rules between the states vary greatly, with a few states that essentially already banned non-compete provisions, a few states having very little restrictions, and most states, like Georgia, falling somewhere in between.

While a full analysis of the enforceability of non-competes and other restrictive covenants in Georgia is well beyond the scope of this post, the short answer is that enforceability comes down to the legal profession’s favorite term “reasonableness” and the type of employee to whom the restrictions are applied. Key factors include a reasonable time (for how long will the restrictions apply), geographic area (in what area, state, or states the restrictions apply), role (whether the restricted individual is a key employee), and scope (activities from which the individual is restricted).

So, if non-competes and other restrictive covenants are enforceable, what is the upshot? For employees, these provisions are not automatically unenforceable, and employers remain within their rights to enforce these types of restrictions so long as they meet the reasonableness factors mentioned above. For employers, it is paramount to ensure that non competition provisions and other restrictive covenants comply with the applicable state’s case law and statutes if they want to effectively enforce these provisions.

Ted W. Williams is an attorney with Flint, Connolly & Walker, LLP currently assisting clients in a variety of corporate matters including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and financing arrangements, as well as numerous general corporate matters such as corporate governance, regulatory compliance, commercial contracts, and business formations.