Based in part on the recent empirical studies of CNCs in the employment context, as well as the Goldstein Law Firm’s analysis of the economic principles underlying CNCs in general and in the franchise context in particular, we believe that there are many proposals that would minimize the costs or harms associated with franchise and employment CNCs, including the following:
- Augment increased transparency in the offering of CNCs to franchisees and employees;
- Encourage franchisors and employers to use more narrowly tailored CNCs in their agreements;
- Limit the enforceability of CNCs to times earlier in the franchise or employment relationship, such that the enforceability of a CNC will be drained by the end of the employment or franchise relationship;
- Allow employees and franchisees the possibility of buying themselves out of their noncompete agreements at the time of termination or expiration of their employment of franchise relationships; and
- Prohibit by statute the use of ‘blue penciling’ that allows courts to give a second life to an unlawful noncompete provision by trimming the unreasonable and overbroad aspects of the CNC so that it thereafter it is viewed to fall within the acceptable reasonable range of CNCs.