New California laws intended to strengthen the state’s long-standing ban on non-competition agreements are set to create immediate headaches for employers in the state that have, or plan to, impose non-compete or non-solicit clauses on their employees in the Golden State. The new amendments — S.B. 699 and A.B. 1076 — not only codify existing case law banning nearly all non-compete agreements, but go a step further by empowering employees to sue their employer for imposing or trying to enforce a non-compete against them, even if the non-compete was entered in another state where it would have otherwise been enforceable. An employee who wins such a case can also recover reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs. The law became effective January 1, 2024.
