The Justification for Antitrust Regulation on Abuse of Non-compete Agreements

Non-compete agreements used to maintain the trade secrets of enterprises and prevent "free riding", may be abused, and alienated into anti-competitive practices. However, the internal improvement of labor law cannot correct the anti-competitive effect of the agreements, and there is also a lack of practical and doctrinal support for outlawing the non-compete agreements. The antitrust regulation on the abuse of non-compete agreements is justified: on the one hand, public interests constitute the legal basis of antitrust enforcement; on the other hand, the logic of the application of antitrust law is that it is equally applicable to the maintenance of competition order in the labor market. Notwithstanding, the antitrust treatment of non-compete agreements has its limits. It should establish the legislative objectives of prioritizing competition and indirectly preserving the welfare of workers, and subsequently, through the case study of reasonable analysis of competitive effects, finally strengthening the interaction between the antitrust law and the existing regulatory paths to regulate the abuse of non-compete agreements.