MSCI Continues Advocacy Against FTC Non-Compete Rule

Last week, the Metals Service Center Institute, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (USCC), and more than 260 other organizations sent a letter to lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate asking them to oppose the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) proposed rule on non-compete agreements for employees and independent contractors.

As Connecting the Dots has reported, in most cases, the FTC’s proposed rule would make it illegal for an employer to:

• Enter into or attempt to enter into a non-compete with a worker;
• Maintain a non-compete with a worker; or
• Represent to a worker, under certain circumstances, that the worker is subject to a non-compete agreement.

The proposal has sparked widespread concern among the business community on how a national ban on non-competes could impact their businesses’ investment in employees and affect the protection of sensitive information and intellectual property.

Because of these concerns, MSCI already had joined the USCC and other business organizations to send a letter, available here, asking the FTC to extend its comment period for the proposed regulation.

The most recent letter with the USCC, available here, asked members of Congress “to exercise oversight and appropriations authority to rein in FTC’s unauthorized rulemaking banning noncompete agreements.” It also argued the FTC lacks the constitutional or statutory authority to issue such a rule and, in attempting to do so, has improperly usurped the role of Congress.

MSCI encourages individual member companies that could be impacted this proposed rule to make their voices heard. Click here to learn how to submit a comment letter to the FTC. The deadline is March 20, 2023.

To inform these company comment letters, USCC has more information on this rule here and here.