It has been a longstanding rule that California will not enforce non-compete agreements. Specifically, California's Business and Professions Code (CBPC) Section 16600 invalidates "every contract by which anyone is restrained from engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind," with limited exceptions for restrictions related to the sale of a business, dissolution of a partnership, or dissolution or termination of an interest in a limited liability company.

While California's employers may not have embraced the state's stance, they understood it and honored it. But when the California Senate and Assembly recently enacted new laws to change the state's restrictions on non-competes, California employers advocated against them.