Legislative Updates: Right-to-Repair, Non-Compete Scrutiny, and Ransomware Payments

Another area to catch up on – is legislation.

Right to repair was made law in Minnesota.  Electronics manufacturers must let independent repair shops and consumers buy the parts and tools necessary to repair their equipment. The rules don’t apply to some notable categories, including farm equipment, game consoles, medical devices, and motor vehicles.

I also wanted to highlight Bloomberg Law’s look at non-compete agreements.   National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo said this week that noncompete pacts violate federal labor law, with narrow exceptions.  And, The Federal Trade Commission is developing a rule that would ban noncompete agreements economy-wide, with the commission eyeing April 2024 for a vote on a final rule. 

In the “idea” category, A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators introduced a bill on Wednesday seeking to forge deeper cybersecurity ties between the U.S., Israel, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.   Named the “Abraham Accords Cybersecurity Cooperation Act of 2023,” the bill would add cybersecurity cooperation to the landmark Middle East deal signed in 2020.  This is from the Record.

Also being considered – banning ransomware payments.    The White House’s options include possible wavers, including where a ransomware group is preventing the delivery of critical services.  

I’m going to focus on the non-compete portion of this news today.   Dead policy walking.    Start preparing for that change now.    The impact of this change is directly related to the size of the business.     Smaller, less impact, bigger, much more.