Allowed if reasonable

Non-compete law in Kansas

Kansas has no statute governing employee covenants not to compete; they are judged under common-law reasonableness (no case cited here). K.S.A. 50-163 (as amended by L. 2025 ch. 74, effective 2025-07-01) expressly keeps 'covenants not to compete' outside the Kansas restraint of trade act, but it makes written owner and employee non-solicitation covenants meeting its conditions conclusively presumed enforceable (employees: up to 2 years after employment; customers limited to 'material contact customers'; owners: up to 4 years) and requires courts to modify overbroad covered covenants rather than strike them.

Last verified · confidence medium. Clauseworthy is not a law firm and does not give legal advice.

Employee non-competes
Not banned; conditions apply
Pay floor
None in the statute
Duration
No statutory cap for noncompetes (common-law reasonableness). Employee non-solicitation of customers: presumption applies if limited to material contact customers and not more than 2 years after employment ends (K.S.A. 50-163(c)(5)).

Exceptions and special rules

  • K.S.A. 50-163(e)(6): the Kansas restraint of trade act does not apply to 'any franchise agreements or covenants not to compete'
  • Owner covenants: owner non-solicitation of employees/owners (up to 4 years after the owner's business relationship ends) and of material contact customers (up to 4 years) are conclusively presumed enforceable; a provision requiring an owner to give prior notice of intent to terminate, sell or dispose of an ownership interest is conclusively presumed enforceable (K.S.A. 50-163(c)(2), (3), (6)). 'Owner' includes a current or former owner or seller of any part of a business's assets or any ownership interest (50-163(g)(3)).

Non-solicitation clauses

K.S.A. 50-163(c)(4)-(5): a written employee covenant not to solicit the business's employees or owners is conclusively presumed enforceable and not a restraint of trade if it seeks to protect confidential or trade secret information or customer/supplier relationships, goodwill or loyalty, or does not continue more than 2 years after employment; a written employee covenant not to solicit customers is conclusively presumed enforceable if limited to material contact customers and not more than 2 years after employment. The employee may still assert any available defense at law or equity ((c)(7)). If a covenant that is not presumed enforceable is overbroad, the court must modify and enforce it as modified ((b)).

Remedies

No statutory remedy for noncompetes. For covered non-solicitation covenants, courts modify overbroad covenants and grant only relief reasonably necessary to protect the business interest (K.S.A. 50-163(b)).

Recent changes

  • 2025-07-01. S.B. 241 (L. 2025, ch. 74, sec. 1) amended K.S.A. 50-163, effective July 1, 2025 per the revisor's history line; the current text contains the owner/employee non-solicitation presumptions, mandatory modification and the exclusion of 'franchise agreements or covenants not to compete' from the restraint of trade act. Which of these provisions were new in 2025 is not shown in the enrolled text read (pdftotext loses the underlining), so the 2013 baseline was not compared. Source

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