Florida’s New Non-Compete Law: A Playbook for Tech and High-Growth Companies from Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Spain, Colombia (and Beyond)

Author: Yoel Molina, Esq., Owner and Operator of the Law Office of Yoel Molina, P.A.

22 October 2025

Florida’s New Non-Compete Law: A Playbook for Tech and High-Growth Companies from Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Spain, Colombia (and Beyond)

Florida has doubled down on protecting companies that invest heavily in R&D, AI, software, and customer relationships. The state’s new non-compete framework (often referred to as the CHOICE Act and effective July 1, 2025) strengthens how certain non-compete and garden-leave agreements can be enforced for highly compensated personnel, while preserving Florida’s long-standing employer-friendly statute on restrictive covenants (§ 542.335).

For Latin American and Spanish companies expanding into Miami-Dade—or running Florida teams remotely—this is a practical opportunity to reduce poaching risk and protect IP and customer goodwill, provided you implement the rules precisely. Below is a plain-English guide tailored to founders, GCs, and HR leaders from Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Spain, Colombia, and similar jurisdictions building tech, fintech, SaaS, e-commerce, healthtech, gaming, and AI teams in Florida.

What Changed—and Why It Matters for Cross-Border Operators

Florida’s new framework supplements (not replaces) § 542.335 for a subset of workers known as Covered Employees.
Covered Employees generally include individuals (employees or contractors) who earn more than 2× the annual mean wage for the applicable county, which often captures senior engineers, product leaders, GTM executives, data scientists, and key technical contractors.
The law allows post-employment non-compete periods of up to four years for Covered Employees in appropriate circumstances, expanding beyond the historical two-year reasonableness benchmark that many Florida courts used.
Courts are directed toward fast preliminary injunctions when a compliant covenant is shown, shifting a heavy burden to the employee and the new employer to prove why an injunction shouldn’t apply.
Garden leave is expressly recognized (up to four years with continued base pay/benefits and notice), giving employers a structured way to protect know-how and customer relationships during sensitive transitions.
Competitors that hire a restricted worker face heightened risk of injunctions, especially if the new role is similar or likely to leverage confidential information or customer relationships.
With federal efforts to ban non-competes on ice after litigation, state law controls—making Florida an attractive jurisdiction for designing enforceable protections.

Why This Helps Tech, AI, and IP-Intensive Businesses

If you’re scaling U.S. operations from Mexico City, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Bogotá (or elsewhere) and hiring in Florida, the new law helps you stabilize teams, protect valuation, and keep execution velocity:

AI/Deep-tech R&D: Senior ML engineers, research leads, and platform architects hold highly sensitive, often tacit knowledge. The framework helps prevent immediate moves into roles where that knowledge would inevitably be used against you.
SaaS & product-led growth: GTM and product leaders who know pricing strategy, cohorts, LTV/CAC, roadmap, and renewal playbooks can’t pivot to a rival and “weaponize” that know-how mid-cycle.
Customer-centric businesses: Where relationships drive renewals or marketplace liquidity, the new rules help prevent abrupt departures that would unfairly transfer goodwill to competitors.

CHOICE Compliance Checklist (Use This When Drafting)

To benefit from the law’s stronger enforcement, your agreement must be CHOICE-compliant and tailored to Covered Employees. Build these elements into your templates:

Eligibility & Compensation Test Confirm the worker’s annualized base compensation exceeds 2× the BLS annual mean wage for the relevant Florida county. Keep a dated copy of the data pull in the personnel file.
Seven-Day Review + Counsel Notice Provide the agreement with at least 7 days for review and a clear notice of the right to consult counsel. Track delivery and acknowledgment.
Acknowledgments Include the worker’s written acknowledgment that they receive or will receive confidential information and/or access to customer relationships in the role.
Scope of Restricted Activity Tailor restrictions to (a) roles involving “similar services” to those the worker performed during the prior three years, or (b) roles where it is reasonably likely the worker would use the company’s confidential information or customer relationships.
Duration & Geography Cap the post-employment non-compete at no more than four years. In many cases, shorter durations (12–24 months) are commercially sensible; reserve longer terms for truly mission-critical roles. Geographic limits may be less important if the role-based tests are properly met, but calibrate to your business model.
Garden Leave (Optional but Powerful) Consider a garden-leave clause with continued base pay and benefits during the notice period (up to four years). After an initial period (e.g., 90 days), the worker may be relieved of services while remaining on payroll, reducing the post-employment restriction day-for-day for any non-working portion of the notice.
Remedies & Enforcement State that the company is entitled to injunctive relief, damages, and attorneys’ fees for breaches, and that preliminary injunctions are appropriate to prevent irreparable harm.
Integrate With § 542.335 Maintain robust NDAs, invention/IP assignment, non-solicit of customers and employees, and trade-secret provisions for all personnel—including those who don’t meet the CHOICE thresholds.

Cross-Border Nuances for Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Spain, Colombia

Home-country differences: Non-compete rules vary (e.g., compensation requirements, shorter maximum durations, or narrow enforceability). Don’t port a Spanish or LatAm form into Florida; draft Florida-first agreements for Florida roles and localize for each other jurisdiction to avoid conflicts.
Choice of law & forum: For Florida hires and Florida-based teams, select Florida law and Miami-Dade venue. For remote executives outside Florida, build a clear Florida nexus (operations, reporting line, systems access) to support application of Florida law.
Remote/hybrid teams: If time is split across states or countries, paper the Florida connection and train HR to use the correct template consistently.
Data & export controls: Pair non-competes with access governance, incident response, IP assignment, and post-termination duties (return, deletion, certifications).
Equity, bonuses, and consideration: Florida typically allows continued at-will employment as consideration; align equity vesting and bonus plans to promote retention and minimize exit disputes.
Translations & evidentiary readiness: Keep dual-language versions, notarized translations where helpful, and plan for cross-border service of process if a dispute spills outside the U.S.

Practical Playbooks by Scenario

AI Lab / Deep-Tech

Apply CHOICE to research leads, staff ML engineers, infra/security heads, and product security.
Add garden leave around product launches or financing to cover the highest-risk window.
Combine with code-level access logs, notebook controls, and DLP to strengthen injunction evidence.

SaaS & Fintech Scale-Ups

Cover regional sales leaders, solutions architects, revenue ops/pricing leaders, and enterprise CSMs.
Maintain deal room hygiene: mark and limit access to pricing strategy, cohorts, and playbooks.
For partner ecosystems, use non-interference and no-raid provisions.

E-Commerce / Marketplaces

Restrict senior managers with visibility into algorithms, supplier terms, and fee structures.
Use customer and vendor non-solicits in tandem with CHOICE-grade non-competes for roles where “similar services” are obvious.

Nearshoring With Florida Leadership

Many Latin American companies centralize U.S. leadership in Miami while engineering sits in Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Colombia or Spain.
Put CHOICE covenants on Florida-based leaders and harmonize non-solicit/NDA terms for offshore teams under local law.
Build cross-border enforcement kits: template pleadings, declarations, translation protocols, and evidence preservation across tools.

Enforcement Reality: What Happens When Someone Jumps Ship?

When a Covered Employee with a CHOICE-compliant agreement resigns for a role that either involves similar services or is reasonably likely to exploit confidential information or customer relationships, Florida courts are positioned to grant quick preliminary injunctions. That puts pressure on the employee and the new employer to demonstrate, with clear and convincing evidence, why the injunction should be modified or dissolved. In fast-moving sectors like AI and SaaS, early injunctive relief often ends the dispute quickly, preserves your roadmap, and protects valuation.

Federal Overlay: Where Things Stand

Businesses watched the FTC’s attempted nationwide non-compete ban closely. After courtroom challenges, the federal ban is not in effect, so Florida-compliant strategies remain available. Continue monitoring federal developments, but design for Florida law today.

Your 10-Step Action Plan (Start This Week)

Inventory sensitive roles that merit CHOICE coverage: IP access, pricing authority, strategic knowledge, customer control.
Pull BLS county wage data and confirm who qualifies as a Covered Employee; memorialize your methodology.
Draft Florida-first templates: CHOICE non-compete + optional garden leave + NDA + non-solicit + IP assignment.
Embed 7-day review + counsel notice and track acknowledgments.
Right-size duration (often 12–24 months; reserve longer terms for mission-critical roles).
Tune the scope to “similar services” and/or “reasonably likely misuse”—avoid overbreadth.
Operationalize in HRIS/ATS: countersignature checks, template controls, and metadata tagging of confidential assets.
Train managers: what to share/not share pre-exit; revoke access on notice; implement clean handover protocols.
Prepare injunction kits: draft pleadings, exhibits, affidavits, and a Miami-Dade filing playbook for rapid action.
Quarterly audits: update compensation thresholds (as BLS data shifts), refresh templates, and re-validate who still qualifies as “covered.”