Void for employees

Non-compete law in North Dakota

N.D.C.C. 9-08-06 voids any contract that restrains someone from a lawful profession, trade or business, which covers employee noncompetes. The only exceptions are (1) a seller of a business's goodwill (and its partners, members or shareholders) agreeing with the buyer not to carry on a similar business within a reasonable geographic area for a reasonable time, and (2) partners, members or shareholders agreeing on or in anticipation of dissolution, dissociation, or as part of an agreement on the sale or dissociation of an ownership interest.

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

Employee non-competes
Void by statute
Pay floor
None in the statute

Exceptions and special rules

  • Sale of a business: the statute allows a non-compete given by a seller.
  • Partners, members or shareholders, upon or in anticipation of dissolution of a partnership, LLC or corporation; upon or in anticipation of dissociation of a partner or member; or as part of an agreement addressing the dissociation or sale of a partner's, member's or shareholder's ownership interest, may agree not to carry on a similar business within a reasonable geographic area where the business has been transacted, or a specified part of it (9-08-06(2))
  • Sale-of-goodwill covenant is valid only if the buyer, or one deriving title to the goodwill from the buyer, carries on a like business in that area (9-08-06(1))

Non-solicitation clauses

Statute does not mention non-solicitation; 9-08-06 voids contracts restraining a lawful profession, trade or business 'to that extent'. Whether a given non-solicit falls inside that language is case law, not addressed in the statute.

Contracts naming another state's law

None found in chapter 9-08.

Remedies

None specific; a covenant outside the exceptions is 'to that extent void' (9-08-06). Chapter 9-08 sets no penalty or fee-shifting.

Which agreements it covers

Current text is the 2019 amendment (HB 1351, 2019 N.D. Laws ch. 87, approved 2019-03-28, filed 2019-03-29). The act contains no applicability clause in the session-law text; the pre-2019 text limited the exceptions to a 'specified county, city or part of either' and to the same city.

Recent changes

  • 2025-07-01. North Dakota Legislative Council states that all statutory changes approved by the 69th Legislative Assembly (2025) are reflected in the online Century Code; the 9-08-06 PDF (last modified 2026-04-09) carries the 2019 text unchanged, so the 2025 session did not amend it. Source
  • 2019-03-28. HB 1351 (ch. 87) amended 9-08-06: replaced 'specified county, city' with 'reasonable geographic area and ... reasonable length of time' for goodwill sellers, and added dissociation and ownership-interest sale/dissociation agreements to the owner exception. Source

Primary sources

Checker

What the statute says for these facts

Four facts. The answer leads with what the statute does at that pay, then names any change already enacted, then quotes the details with their citations.

The person who would sign

Several statutes treat contractors differently.

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