The Federal Trade Commission’s proposed ban on noncompete agreements would affect many workers in sectors like fast food and retail, where these agreements can be a cheap way of retaining employees.
“I said, what can I do to stop this? And the customer service rep. goes, ‘Well, if we could stop all instances of fraud, we would but we can’t,'” says Jessica Roy, assistant editor of Utility Journalism at The Los Angeles Times.
The agency has warned companies against using what it calls “illegal dark patterns” to trap consumers into subscriptions that are then hard to get out of.