Warner Bros. sues Amazon for poaching execs — California's non-compete fight comes back

Warner Bros. has filed a lawsuit accusing Amazon of illegally hiring away its executives with a no-poach clause in their employment contracts. The case lands squarely in California, where the state has banned non-competes since 2022 — but the legal question is whether other restrictive covenants, like non-solicitation clauses, survive that ban.

The bigger fight is over how California treats employment agreements that try to lock talent in. The state's anti-non-compete law is broad, but courts have split on whether provisions like non-solicitation and non-disclosure survive the ban. If Warner Bros. wins, it could push courts to read those clauses narrowly — or at least slow the poaching war that's become standard between tech, media, and big employers. If Amazon wins, it confirms California's stance: once you leave, you're free to work wherever you want, and your old employer can't quietly lock the door behind you.

Why this matters for us: California has always been the state where workers have the most room to move — this case tests whether that freedom is holding up when the biggest companies try to enforce it through the back door.