FTC Rips Judge’s ‘Major Questions’ Use in Noncompete Appeal (1)

A Florida federal judge who relied on the “major questions” doctrine in siding with a company challenging the Federal Trade Commission ban on noncompetes “fundamentally misunderstood” that legal test, the FTC said.

The doctrine, created by the US Supreme Court, requires regulators to have clear congressional authorization before acting on questions with major political or economic weight.

But that standard should have no bearing over a rule that is firmly rooted in the FTC’s mandate to prevent unfair methods of competition, the agency said a Monday brief in the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. ...