LEGISLATION
At Can't Buy My Silence one of our core goals is legislation to stop the misuse of NDAs beyond their original intended purpose of protecting intellectual property, trade secrets and client confidentiality. We are fortunate enough to be working with countries and organisations throughout the world to reach our goal. Find out more about our work and legislative advances in the countries below by clicking the flag.
TOP 10 CLAUSES
If you’re wondering what change could look like, we’ve now got a handy guide of our top 10 clauses for legislation on non-disclosure agreements. These are our recommendations for important clauses to include. The huge rise in laws being passed globally provides lots of examples.
MODEL BILL
In 2021, CBMS collaborated on drafting legislation restricting NDAs that was introduced in Ireland by Senator Lynn Ruane. This Bill became the basis of the PEI Non-Disclosure Agreements Act 2021 which CBMS Canada worked on with Lynne Lund, the Deputy Leader of the Green Party who introduced and championed the Bill. Both the Irish (passed 2024) and the PEI Acts prohibit the use of NDAs in instances of abuse, harassment and discrimination. The PEI Act applies both inside and outside the workplace. Both Acts use a “conditions based” approach ie NDAs can only be enforceable if they meet a number of conditions including a fixed time duration, the provision of independent legal advice, and complaints specific preference.
Many concerns have been expressed in US jurisdictions (eg Engstrom, 2025) over the potential for “complainants preference“ to be abused by a perfunctory form signing without informed consent. As well, not all the original conditions have survived the legislative process to make it into law.
CBMS is now changing its recommended approach to the “straightforward ban” used by many US states
In addition, in our new Model Bill
* stronger language has been added on any reprisals for not signing an NDA (an issue we have started to see more often). (s9)
* the legislation is retroactive ie it also makes past NDAs within the scope of the Act unenforceable (s8)
* adds “abuse” to the scope of the Act (s1)
* Includes government institutions and agencies within the ban (s6)
We welcome all comments!