It should be noted that in the U.S., there are really 50 individual jurisdictions. Contract law is a state matter. Some states may be better or worse at upholding non-competes. California in particular is known for disregarding non-competes.<p>Also, many non-competes go totally unenforced. It&#x27;s rare that a suit over a non-compete is actually filed for low-level employees. In the linked article, the writer wasn&#x27;t fired because her old company sued her for competing, she was fired simply because the new company found out she had signed a non-compete and presumably wanted to avoid any potential lawsuit-related shenanigans. It&#x27;s also possible that the company is trying to establish a precedent for voluntary, pro-active enforcement of competitors&#x27; non-competes within the industry <i>specifically because</i> they know the courts are unlikely to uphold them. If all the employers just agree not to hire someone who worked at a competitor within the last 2 years, then they don&#x27;t need to worry about what the court thinks (though they may have to face the DOJ in a wage-fixing scandal, like the computer animation industry has).