FTC Noncompete Ban Loss Leaves Agency With Dilemma on Appeal (1)

The Federal Trade Commission is left with some thorny strategy questions after a Texas federal judge blocked a near-total ban on worker noncompete agreements on grounds it ran afoul of the agency’s legal authority.

Judge Ada Brown of the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas on Tuesday vacated the FTC regulation on a nationwide basis, ruling the agency doesn’t have powers granted by Congress to enact substantive rules targeting unfair methods of competition.

The decision, a significant blow for the FTC, comes amid some tension in the courts on that legal question. A federal judge in Pennsylvania ...