[easyThrowaway]

...But in the near future they will have to agree on the common directive on this topic, which for now considers them as nonbinding, except for very specific corner cases, if even: https://competition-policy.ec.europa.eu/document/download/ad...

[anal_reactor]

I have signed a two-year non-compete as a part of my contract in the Netherlands. The official government website says basically "yeah so non-competes are binding, but if you go to court, you have a decent chance of voiding it, no promises though, good luck".

Regarding the EU document, there's a very long way between "EU noticed a problem" and "EU fixed a problem".