If you signed a noncompete in the last few years, the FTC just sent a signal you can't afford to miss. On April 15, 2026, the agency ordered Rollins — the parent company of Orkin, HomeTeam, and Critter Control — to stop enforcing noncompete agreements against more than 18,000 employees. Pest control technicians. Customer service reps. People earning hourly wages. All locked into two-year, 75-mile noncompetes from any of Rollins' 700+ locations.
The FTC said those contracts were unfair under federal law. Rollins now has to call every current and former employee and tell them the restriction is gone.
What Happened
The FTC announced a proposed consent order requiring Rollins to cease and desist from entering, maintaining, or enforcing any noncompete agreements with its workers (read the primary FTC press release). The agency found the agreements blocked workers from getting better-paying jobs, suppressed wages, and prevented competitors from entering the pest control market.
The terms were standard for a low-wage, high-turnover industry: two years out, 75 miles around any of Rollins' 700+ U.S. locations. That math means a technician fired in Atlanta couldn't take a similar job anywhere within roughly a 90-minute drive of every Orkin office in the South. For most workers, that meant changing careers or moving cities.
Then the FTC sent warning letters to 13 other pest-control companies, signaling the same playbook is coming for the rest of the industry. This isn't a one-off. It's the new strategy. The FTC's 2024 blanket ban on noncompetes was vacated by federal courts and officially removed from federal regulations earlier this year. After a January 2026 public workshop, the agency formally pivoted from "categorical ban" to "case-by-case enforcement." The Rollins consent order is the first major shot in that new campaign — and it tells you exactly what kind of noncompete is now in the crosshairs.
Why This Matters to You
If you're a freelancer, founder, contractor, or hourly employee with a noncompete on your desk right now, this ruling tells you three things.
One: noncompetes against low-wage and non-strategic workers are now being actively challenged. The FTC isn't going after the CEO who actually knows trade secrets. It's going after the technician who installs traps for $18 an hour. If your noncompete covers a job that doesn't involve protected information, the FTC has effectively said that's an unfair business practice. Two: overly broad scope is the trigger. Rollins' noncompete covered all employees, two years, 75 miles, from every location. That breadth — applied to workers who couldn't negotiate it — is what got the company busted. If your contract has a "you can't work in this industry anywhere in the country for two years" clause, you're looking at the same risk profile the FTC just punished. Three: state law matters more than ever. California, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Oklahoma already ban most noncompetes outright. Illinois requires you earn over roughly $75,000 before a noncompete can stick. Washington's threshold is around $120,000 a year. With the federal blanket ban dead, your state's rules are the floor — and a lot of contracts being signed today are unenforceable in your jurisdiction whether the employer admits it or not. We have a full state-by-state breakdown at is my non-compete enforceable in my state.Real-world stakes: a marketing consultant in Texas turned down a $185,000 role last year because her old contract had a one-year, 250-mile noncompete. She thought she had to honor it. Texas courts have a strong record of striking down noncompetes that aren't tied to legitimate trade secrets — but she didn't know that, and her old employer counted on her not knowing. That asymmetry is the entire reason these contracts get signed.
What to Check in YOUR Contract Right Now
Pull up your employment agreement, contractor agreement, or offer letter and look for five things.
Check #1: Scope of restriction. If the clause prevents you from working in the entire industry — not just for direct competitors — that's overbroad. Modern enforceable noncompetes name specific competitor companies or define competition narrowly. "Any business engaged in similar activities" is the language the FTC just punished Rollins for. Check #2: Geographic radius. Anything wider than where you actually do business is suspect. A 75-mile radius from every Rollins office added up to most of the eastern United States. Courts and regulators don't like that anymore. A regional sales rep restricted to her actual sales territory? Reasonable. A janitor restricted everywhere? No. Check #3: Duration. Two years used to be standard. Today, six months to one year is the new ceiling for most non-executive roles. Anything beyond that needs a real justification — like access to genuine trade secrets or a multi-year customer cycle. Check #4: Consideration. Did you get anything extra in exchange for signing? A signing bonus, a raise, training that has measurable market value? In most states, signing a noncompete on day one of a new job counts as consideration on its own. But if your employer slid one across your desk three years in with no raise attached, that's a problem for them — not for you. Check #5: Choice of law and venue. Your contract may say "governed by the laws of Delaware" even though you've never set foot in Delaware. Employers do this to escape stricter state laws. Some courts uphold these clauses. Some don't. The point: where the contract says it lives is not always where it actually has teeth. If you decide it's worth pushing back, here's how to negotiate a non-compete clause without torching the offer.What NovaDocs Catches Automatically
Upload any employment contract, offer letter, or contractor agreement to novadocs.online and the Analysis Panel flags noncompete language in under a minute. It pulls out the scope, the duration, the geographic radius, the consideration question, and whether the breadth matches what state and federal regulators are now treating as unfair. Click any flagged clause and the viewer jumps to the exact sentence. The risk score tells you whether what you're looking at is standard, aggressive, or in the same category the FTC just hit Rollins for — before you sign.
The Bottom Line
The FTC didn't pass a new law this week. It applied an existing one — Section 5 of the FTC Act — to a real company with real consequences. Rollins now has to send notices to 18,000 people telling them their noncompetes are dead. Other pest-control companies got warning letters. The pattern is clear: any industry with broad, low-justification noncompetes is on the radar.
If your contract has a noncompete and you've never read it carefully, this is the week to do it. The federal blanket ban isn't coming back any time soon. But the FTC and your state attorney general are now both empowered to challenge specific contracts that go too far. Knowing what "too far" looks like is the difference between honoring a clause that doesn't legally bind you and walking away from a job you should have taken.
Upload your contract at novadocs.online and find out where yours stands in 60 seconds.
NovaDocs is a free AI contract intelligence platform. Upload any contract and get instant analysis at novadocs.online.