COBALT successfully defended its client’s interests in an unfair competition case – courts of both instances dismissed allegations of misuse of trade secrets and customer poaching.
The court stated that:
- Publicly available information is not a trade secret, even if the employer claims otherwise.
- An employee’s professional experience, knowledge and reputation are a legitimate source of competitive advantage, not unfair competition.
- An employer who has not provided a work email address and has allowed the use of a personal email address cannot claim to have taken reasonable steps to protect information. Furthermore, without a non-competition agreement, an employee’s move to a competitor is not in itself unfair competition.
As a result, the claimant’s appeal challenging the decision of the court of first instance was dismissed. Neither the court of first instance nor the court of appeal found any unlawful actions on the part of the client.
Employee turnover in the labour market ≠ unlawful employee poaching. Professional experience and knowledge belong to the employee, and their use in a new workplace is fair competition.
The client was successfully represented by COBALT Partner, Head of the Dispute Resolution Department practice group Professor Dr Rimantas Simaitis and Senior Associate, Attorney-at-Law Rugilė Šiaulytė.
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