Work · Non-Compete Agreements
Are Non-Competes Enforceable in Georgia?
Whether an employee non-compete holds up in Georgia, any income threshold that voids one, the exceptions and carve-outs, and how the state compares after the 2024 to 2025 changes. Cited to the statute or the controlling law.
The rules and exceptions in Georgia
What makes a non-compete enforceable here, when it is void, and the carve-outs for particular workers or agreements.
The date of your agreement matters: the Act applies only to covenants signed on or after May 11, 2011, and older ones fall under stricter pre-Act rules. Georgia Supreme Court decisions in 2024 also refined how geographic limits are read for non-solicit covenants. Confirm which rule and which case law apply to your agreement.
| The rule in this state | What it means |
|---|---|
| Reasonable in time, territory, and scope | O.C.G.A. §13-8-53(a) enforces a non-compete against an employee so long as the restriction is reasonable in time, geographic area, and scope of prohibited activities. The Act expressly permits employee non-competes, reversing Georgia’s older hostility to them. |
| Two-year duration presumed reasonable | Under §13-8-57, a post-employment restraint of two years or less is presumed reasonable, and a restraint longer than two years is presumed unreasonable. That presumption gives employers a practical ceiling for most employee covenants. |
| Courts may blue-pencil an overbroad covenant | The Act lets a court modify a covenant that would otherwise be void, so long as the change does not make it more restrictive on the employee than originally drafted. This judicial modification power was a major shift from pre-2011 Georgia law, which voided an overbroad employee covenant entirely. |
| Exceptions and carve-outs | What it means |
|---|---|
| Applies only to agreements from May 11, 2011 on | The Restrictive Covenants Act governs only agreements entered on or after May 11, 2011. A covenant signed before that date is judged under stricter pre-Act common law, which refused to blue-pencil an overbroad employee non-compete and often voided it outright. |
| Geographic description can be flexible | No express geographic term is always required. The Act treats a description like the territory where the employee worked at termination as sufficient, and the Georgia Supreme Court in 2024 held certain non-solicit covenants need no express geographic limit at all. |
| Longer restraints for owners and sales | Higher tiers get more room. A restraint tied to the sale of a business, or imposed on an owner, is allowed a longer presumptively reasonable period than the two years given to ordinary employees. |
What you can do right now
Concrete, neutral steps if you signed or were asked to sign a non-compete in Georgia. This is legal information, not legal advice.
- Check the date your agreement was signed
The Restrictive Covenants Act only covers covenants entered on or after May 11, 2011. If yours predates that, older and stricter Georgia rules apply, which can void an overbroad clause entirely.
- Measure the covenant against the two-year presumption
A post-employment restraint of two years or less is presumed reasonable, and longer than two years is presumed unreasonable. If your covenant runs well past two years, that presumption works in your favor.
- Do not assume an overbroad clause is void
Georgia courts can blue-pencil, or narrow, an overbroad covenant instead of striking it, though they cannot make it more restrictive than drafted. Plan around the possibility of a trimmed version being enforced.
- Talk to a Georgia employment lawyer before switching jobs
Whether your covenant is enforceable turns on its terms, your role, and its date. A licensed Georgia employment attorney can assess it. The State Bar of Georgia can point you to resources.
Whether a non-compete can be enforced against you turns on its exact terms and your role. This resource can connect you with a licensed employment attorney who can review it.
→ State Bar of Georgia · For the PublicThis is general legal information, not legal advice. A non-compete is different from an NDA or a non-solicitation clause, and enforceability turns on the specific facts, so confirm your situation with a licensed attorney.
What Georgia workers get wrong about non-competes
Georgia flipped from one of the least employer-friendly states to one of the more predictable ones when the Restrictive Covenants Act took effect in 2011. Under O.C.G.A. §13-8-53, an employee non-compete is enforceable so long as it is reasonable in time, territory, and scope of prohibited activities. Section 13-8-57 adds a practical yardstick: a post-employment restraint of two years or less is presumed reasonable, and anything longer is presumed unreasonable. The biggest change from the old law is blue-penciling. A Georgia court can now narrow an overbroad covenant rather than void it, as long as the fix does not make the restraint tougher on the employee than it started. Two things decide which rule governs you. First, the date: the Act only reaches agreements signed on or after May 11, 2011, and older covenants face stricter pre-Act rules. Second, recent case law, since the Georgia Supreme Court in 2024 clarified when a covenant needs an express geographic limit. Check your agreement’s date before relying on any of this.
Common questions
Are non-compete agreements enforceable in Georgia?
Yes, if reasonable. Under the Georgia Restrictive Covenants Act (O.C.G.A. §13-8-53) an employee non-compete is enforceable so long as it is reasonable in time, geographic area, and scope. Courts can blue-pencil an overbroad one rather than void it.
How long can a non-compete last in Georgia?
Under O.C.G.A. §13-8-57, a post-employment restraint of two years or less is presumed reasonable, while longer than two years is presumed unreasonable. So two years is the practical ceiling for most employee covenants.
Can a Georgia court rewrite an overbroad non-compete?
Yes. The Restrictive Covenants Act lets a court modify, or blue-pencil, a covenant that would otherwise be void, as long as the change does not make it more restrictive on the employee than originally drafted. Older pre-2011 agreements do not get that treatment.
Does it matter when I signed my Georgia non-compete?
Yes, a lot. The Act applies only to agreements entered on or after May 11, 2011. A covenant signed before that date is judged under stricter pre-Act common law, which often voided an overbroad employee non-compete entirely instead of narrowing it.
Not legal advicePlainStatute provides plain-language summaries of public law for general information only. This is not legal advice. Statutes change; always confirm current requirements with the official source linked above before acting.