Comment by zlg_codes
2 years ago
They cannot enforce a non-compete on a customer. Check out the rest of their terms that talk about durability. They will sneakily say "our terms that are illegal don't apply but the rest do."
You cannot tell a customer that buying your product precludes them from building products like it. That violates principles of the free market, and it's unenforceable. This is just like non-competes in employment. They aren't constitutional.
There's no constitutional question, and these services can drop you as a customer for (almost) any reason.
So yes, they can enforce their terms for all practical purposes.
But no, they cannot levy fines or put you in jail.
> But no, they cannot levy fines or put you in jail.
Those are the consequences that matter. I don't care if Microsoft or Google decide they don't want to be friends with me. They'd stab me in the back to steal my personal data anyway.
You do care if you built your business on top of them though.
And that's the whole point of violating terms by competing with them.
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