FTC Finalizes Rollins Noncompete Order Covering 18,000 Pest-Control Workers, Cementing Its Case-by-Case Enforcement Turn
The FTC finalized a consent order barring Rollins from enforcing noncompetes against more than 18,000 workers, marking its post-rule enforcement pivot.
Overview
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has finalized a consent order requiring Rollins Inc., one of the largest pest-control companies in the United States, to stop enforcing noncompete agreements against more than 18,000 employees nationwide, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The action caps an enforcement effort the FTC opened earlier this spring and underscores how the agency is now policing noncompetes one employer at a time, after its attempt at a nationwide ban was struck down in court.
Rollins is the parent company of several pest-control brands, including Orkin, HomeTeam, and Critter Control, as reported by Saul Ewing. The FTC announced its settlement with the company on April 15, 2026, according to Barley Snyder.
What We Know
The FTC alleged that Rollins imposed noncompete agreements on nearly all of its employees, regardless of role, according to Saul Ewing. The agreements typically barred workers from the pest-control industry for two years after they left the company, within a 75-mile radius of the location where they had worked, as reported by Freshfields. Rollins operates more than 700 locations across the United States, also according to Freshfields.
The company actively enforced those agreements by issuing hundreds of cease-and-desist letters and filing multiple lawsuits against former employees, according to Saul Ewing.
Under the consent order, Rollins is barred from entering into or enforcing noncompete agreements with most of its employees for ten years, as reported by Barley Snyder. The order also requires the company to give current and former workers affirmative notice that their noncompetes are void, again according to Barley Snyder; Freshfields reports that Rollins must inform all affected workers within 60 days. The FTC says the final order requires Rollins to tell those workers they are no longer subject to a noncompete and that they can compete against the company, including by starting their own business, per the Federal Trade Commission.
Alongside the Rollins case, the agency sent warning letters to 13 other pest-control companies, urging them to review and eliminate unfair or anticompetitive noncompete provisions, according to Freshfields and Morrison Foerster.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson framed the action as a turning point, declaring that “The days of unreflective, unjustified, and anticompetitive noncompete agreements are over,” as quoted by Freshfields.
A Pivot From Rulemaking to Enforcement
The Rollins order is the clearest sign yet of how the FTC is pursuing noncompetes after the collapse of its broader rule. In April 2024, the FTC issued a rule that would have banned most noncompetes nationwide, but the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas vacated it in August 2024, according to Saul Ewing. The agency later dismissed its appeals of the vacated rule in September 2025, as reported by Reed Smith.
With the rule abandoned, the agency signaled it would pivot to industry-by-industry enforcement under Section 5 of the FTC Act, according to Reed Smith. That same blog notes the FTC has launched a cross-agency Joint Labor Task Force to pursue anticompetitive labor practices. The Rollins case followed an earlier consent order involving Gateway Services, a pet-cremation company whose noncompetes covered roughly 1,800 workers in September 2025, also according to Reed Smith.
What We Don’t Know
The consent order resolves the FTC’s allegations against Rollins, but the public record reviewed here does not establish whether the company admitted any wrongdoing as part of the settlement. It is also not yet clear how many of the 13 warned pest-control companies will revise their own agreements, or whether the FTC will bring further enforcement actions against employers in other industries. The agency has signaled an appetite for more case-by-case enforcement, according to Freshfields, but the pace and reach of that campaign remain to be seen.