Data
How common are non-compete clauses?
How often does a business contract include a non-compete — and does it depend on the kind of deal?
In the CUAD dataset's 510 public-company commercial contracts, 119 (23.3%) contain a non-compete. It varies widely by type: among contract types with at least 20 contracts, from 54.5% of co-branding agreements down to 2.9% of maintenance agreements.
These are non-competes between businesses — a distributor agreeing not to carry a rival's products, for example. They are not employee non-competes in job contracts, which this dataset does not cover.
Non-compete
| Contract type | Contracts with it | Share |
|---|---|---|
| All 510 contracts | 119 of 510 | 23.3% |
| Co-branding agreement | 12 of 22 | 54.5% |
| Development agreement | 13 of 29 | 44.8% |
| Distribution agreement | 13 of 32 | 40.6% |
| Collaboration agreement | 8 of 26 | 30.8% |
| Endorsement agreement | 7 of 24 | 29.2% |
| Strategic alliance agreement | 8 of 32 | 25.0% |
| Hosting agreement | 4 of 20 | 20.0% |
| Joint venture agreement | 4 of 23 | 17.4% |
| Sponsorship agreement | 5 of 31 | 16.1% |
| License agreement | 5 of 33 | 15.2% |
| Service agreement | 3 of 28 | 10.7% |
| Maintenance agreement | 1 of 34 | 2.9% |
No-solicit of employees
| Contract type | Contracts with it | Share |
|---|---|---|
| All 510 contracts | 59 of 510 | 11.6% |
| Strategic alliance agreement | 14 of 32 | 43.8% |
| Service agreement | 6 of 28 | 21.4% |
| Development agreement | 3 of 29 | 10.3% |
| Hosting agreement | 2 of 20 | 10.0% |
| Maintenance agreement | 3 of 34 | 8.8% |
| Distribution agreement | 2 of 32 | 6.2% |
| Collaboration agreement | 1 of 26 | 3.8% |
| Co-branding agreement | 0 of 22 | 0.0% |
| Endorsement agreement | 0 of 24 | 0.0% |
| Joint venture agreement | 0 of 23 | 0.0% |
| License agreement | 0 of 33 | 0.0% |
| Sponsorship agreement | 0 of 31 | 0.0% |
No-solicit of customers
| Contract type | Contracts with it | Share |
|---|---|---|
| All 510 contracts | 34 of 510 | 6.7% |
| Strategic alliance agreement | 5 of 32 | 15.6% |
| Service agreement | 3 of 28 | 10.7% |
| Distribution agreement | 3 of 32 | 9.4% |
| Co-branding agreement | 2 of 22 | 9.1% |
| Development agreement | 2 of 29 | 6.9% |
| Hosting agreement | 1 of 20 | 5.0% |
| Collaboration agreement | 0 of 26 | 0.0% |
| Endorsement agreement | 0 of 24 | 0.0% |
| Joint venture agreement | 0 of 23 | 0.0% |
| License agreement | 0 of 33 | 0.0% |
| Maintenance agreement | 0 of 34 | 0.0% |
| Sponsorship agreement | 0 of 31 | 0.0% |
What it means before you sign
If a business contract you are sent includes a non-compete, it is not a formality: most contracts in this set did without one. Check how long it lasts, what area and products it covers, and whether a no-hire or no-solicit promise sits next to it.
How we counted
CUAD v1 (The Atticus Project, CC BY 4.0) labels 41 clause categories in 510 commercial contracts filed with the SEC. We counted a clause as present when the labellers marked text for it. Contract types with fewer than 20 contracts are left out of the breakdown.
Limits
- Business-to-business contracts from larger companies — not job offers, freelance contracts or leases.
- Presence only: the labels do not say how long a non-compete lasts, how wide it is, or whether it would hold up.
- Small groups: with 20 to 34 contracts per type, one contract moves a percentage by about 3 to 5 points.
Source: CUAD v1, The Atticus Project (Hendrycks et al., 2021), CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Counts derived from the published labels; no changes to the underlying data.
Informational — not legal advice.