Quick Hits
- On December 19, 2025, the FTC announced an enforcement action against business-to-business no-poach practices and issued a proposed order that would require building services contractor Adamas Amenity Services LLC and its affiliated businesses (Adamas) to cease enforcement of their anticompetitive no-hire agreements. The order was finalized on February 12, 2026.
- This latest action, which mirrors two prior enforcement actions of the same type against Planned Building Services and Guardian Services Industries, aligns with FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson’s comments last year that the Commission would remain interested in labor market issues and would look at noncompete and other restrictive covenant agreement terms on a case-by-case basis.
The FTC’s Enforcement Action and Proposed Order
Adamas is a building services contractor that provides residential and commercial luxury properties and property managers with people and technology to perform various services, including amenities, building and maintenance, concierge, parking and valet, and security services. Adamas routinely includes no-hire agreements in its contracts with building owners and management companies across New Jersey and New York City.
The enforcement action against Adamas comes on the heels of the Commission’s first enforcement action under the Trump administration. In that action, the FTC reached an agreement containing a ten-year consent order that required a pet cremation business to stop enforcing noncompete agreements against nearly 1,800 employees.
Adamas’s no-hire agreements (1) restrict the building owners and management companies from directly hiring workers employed by Adamas, including by imposing a fee in connection with such conduct; (2) limit Adamas workers’ ability to negotiate for higher wages and better benefits and working conditions from the building owners and management companies; and (3) limit the building owners’ and management companies’ ability to seek or accept bids from Adamas’s competitors due to the prospect of losing long-serving employees.
The FTC initiated an investigation of Adamas, after which the Commission’s Bureau of Competition furnished to Adamas a draft complaint, charging Adamas with violations of Section 1 of the Sherman Act and Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act, as amended. The draft complaint alleges that Adamas’s no-hire agreements constitute a method of unfair competition by (1) impeding the entry and expansion of Adamas’s competitors in the building services industry; (2) reducing employee mobility; and (3) causing lower wages and salaries, reduced benefits, less favorable working conditions and, among other things, personal hardship to employees. It also alleges that Adamas could have achieved any legitimate objectives through significantly less restrictive means.
In response to the draft complaint, Adamas and the Bureau of Competition entered into a consent agreement containing a proposed decision and order. Based on the materials provided, the FTC agreed the complaint should be issued, accepted the consent agreement and proposed order, and placed it on the public record for a period of thirty days for the receipt and consideration of public comments. The comment period closed January 22, 2026. The consent order was finalized on February 12, 2026.
The order will remain in effect for ten years and requires Adamas to comply with the following obligations, among others:
- Cease and Desist From Enforcing No-Hire Agreements. Adamas is enjoined from, directly or indirectly, entering or attempting to enter into, maintaining or attempting to maintain, enforcing or attempting to enforce, or threatening to enforce any no-hire agreement, or communicating to any prospective or current customer or person that any employee is or may be subject to a no-hire agreement.
- Provide Written Notice. Adamas is required to provide the following written notices within thirty days after issuance of the order:
- Deliver to each customer subject to a no-hire agreement or that has been subject to a no-hire agreement in the last three years an approved letter stating the no-hire agreement restriction is null and void;
- Deliver to each Adamas employee subject to a no-hire agreement an approved letter stating the no-hire agreement restriction is null and void; and
- Post clear and conspicuous notice in new hire documentation and in any shared employee space that employees are not subject to no-hire agreements and may seek or accept a job with the building owner directly, or with any company, including competitors, that may win the building’s business.
- Submit Compliance Reports. Adamas is required to take certain other compliance steps, including submission of verified written compliance reports at various intervals after issuance of the order.
In a press release issued on December 19, 2025, Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, stated that “anticompetitive no-hire agreements, just like the ones Adamas uses, prevent workers from realizing their full earning potential” and confirmed the FTC “will continue to take enforcement action to protect workers from harmful labor practices that lower paychecks and limit opportunities.”
Next Steps
The FTC’s actions underscore a clear policy that contractual provisions that suppress competition for workers, including by prohibiting or taxing hiring across businesses, are viewed as anticompetitive by the Commission. The FTC’s recent actions relating to no-hire agreements also confirm the FTC’s priority to investigate and scrutinize noncompete and other restrictive covenant agreements and their potential impact on labor markets—particularly where antitrust issues are implicated—through targeted, case-by-case enforcement moving forward.
To increase chances of withstanding scrutiny under the FTC’s latest agenda and under existing and developing state law, employers may want to continue ensuring that restrictive covenants are narrowly tailored as needed to protect their legitimate business interests.
Ogletree Deakins’ Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets Practice Group will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets blog as additional information becomes available.
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