FTC Says Noncompete Defenses Bolstered by Third Circuit Ruling

An appeals court decision allowing a Delaware gun law to stay in place amid a challenge to its constitutionality should bury a company’s push to freeze the Federal Trade Commission’s noncompete ban, the FTC said.

The Third Circuit decision held that preliminary injunctions should be reserved for “extraordinary situations” and that it is usually better to withhold such a remedy if the plaintiff’s alleged injury “does not threaten to moot the case.”

That directly applies to a Pennsylvania tree-trimming firm’s challenge of the FTC’s rule banning noncompete provisions in employment contracts, the commission said in a Tuesday brief in the ...