Is this person's actions illegal? Can the company prevent a customer flight? Can an employee take clients from his or her company to another business? In this post, we will analyze the ruling and answer these and other related questions, which will surely be of interest to many people who read this blog.
A worker requests voluntary leave to carry out the same activity on his own
The case involves a company employee brunei email list who requests voluntary redundancy and, immediately afterwards, becomes self-employed, starting to carry out the same activity that he had been carrying out in the company for three of the clients who already worked with him. At the same time, these clients communicate the termination of their relationship to the company. The company sues because it considers that such acts constitute a violation of its rights.
The ruling considers that the facts are lawful and that the worker has acted within the law, without disloyalty to the company or use of confidential information:
"The plaintiff company cannot prevent one of its employees... from leaving his job and carrying out a similar activity, for which he was precisely professionally trained...; nor can it prevent the establishment of a company whose activity partially coincides with its own; finally, it cannot prevent that employee from carrying out his professional activity in this new company."
In this case , "in principle, the fight to attract customers is legitimate, and reasons of economic efficiency justify it."
With reference to the acquisition of customers, "there is no unlawful act when such a circumstance occurs once the previous contractual relationship has been extinguished (S. 24 November 2006); and this is so because, although customers represent a very important economic value, although intangible, the entrepreneur does not have a right to them, so any other agent or operator in the market can use all the mechanisms of effort and efficiency to snatch the customers from the competitor."
In conclusion, the judgment states that the former employee may, lawfully, approach these clients upon leaving the company and offer them his services, because this knowledge forms part of his experience and skills (unless it is secret information, which in this case has not been alleged, or there is a contractual prohibition to do so or a post-contractual non-competition agreement, which has not been alleged either; and if there were, it would not be an act of unfair competition, but a breach of contract).
