Last week, on August 14, 2024, a Florida federal court addressed the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) non-compete ban in Properties of the Villages, Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission and entered a limited preliminary injunction preventing the rule from taking effect and limited the preliminary injunction to the parties in the case. The court based its decision on the “major questions doctrine,” which prevents a federal agency from issuing substantive rules without express congressional authorization where such rules would have “extraordinary economic and political significance.” Indeed, the court found that the FTC rule would significantly impact the economy by modifying an area of law that has always been the province of state law.
This decision follows the lead of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, which issued a preliminary injunction preventing the rule from taking effect, but only regarding the plaintiff in the case of Ryan LLC v. Federal Trade Commission.
Read on for more information in this blog post.