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The Federal Trade Commission has voted to ban noncompete agreements nationwide, saying that they are an “unfair method of competition.”

Noncompete agreements — which attempt to prevent employees from working for or starting competing businesses — are especially prevalent in the world of tech, where we’ve seen companies like Amazon enforce and then retract a noncompete agreement for warehouse workers. Acer even sued its former CEO for allegedly breaching a noncompete policy by becoming a consultant for Lenovo.

The change will force companies to reverse existing noncompete agreements and notify employees about the change. Existing noncompete agreements for senior executives can stay in place, but companies can’t enter or enforce new…

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