Unfair competition from key employees

Unfair competition is uncivilized forms of competition, which are expressed in the violation of business entities market relations, professional, ethical, moral norms and rules of conduct. Its main goal is to achieve unfair competitive advantages.

One of the common methods of unfair competition is to lure competitors to hold key positions. Of course, luring a valuable employee does not contradict the norms of business ethics. As in any other market, competition in the labor market is counterproductive. Employees compete with each other for the opportunity to work for the most attractive employers. And those in turn can and should compete for the opportunity to attract the most competent employees.

However, not entirely innocent motives are often hidden behind the lure of employees who hold key positions in a competing company. Thus, employers seek to obtain information from the employee about his previous job. It is impossible to prevent this neither from a legal nor from a moral and ethical point of view.

Employers can also try to lure the most attractive clients with whom they had personal communication together with the employee. And when the employee "introduces" the best part of the clientele, the affected company already receives direct losses. In the most severe cases, such losses become fatal for the business and lead to its forced liquidation.

Another threat to unfair competition is employees who steal confidential information and "merge" it with competitors while remaining employed by the company. Abroad in such a situation the affected companies seek to open criminal cases against the guilty employee and his "informal employer". An unscrupulous employee faces not only a large fine, but also imprisonment.

In Ukraine such a possibility exists only theoretically. In order to actually engage an employee who has provided confidential information to a competitor the aggrieved company must first provide law enforcement and the courts with evidence of his guilt, which must be collected without violation.

Less often a key employee steals confidential information, leaves the company, and opens an organization. In the activities of which uses stolen data.

First of all, you need to register and secure all your intellectual property rights in a timely and correct manner. It is also necessary to create a package of documents and instructions, which will be about the protection of confidential information of the company and the consequences for employees after its disclosure. If despite this, you are faced with unfair competition, the current legislation of Ukraine provides for the following protection mechanisms: administrative proceedings, court proceedings and appeals to the Antimonopoly Committee.

What is the responsibility for violating the current legislation on unfair competition?
Unfair competition like any other offense entails administrative, civil and criminal liability in cases provided by law.

If you have questions about the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation, you can seek the help of experienced lawyers from the international law firm Armadum Lawyers. Our specialists have often encountered these problems in practice and will be able to provide quality legal assistance depending on your individual situation and request. We can help you avoid problems with unfair competition. To do this we will create the necessary package of documents, instructions and conduct training for employees.