Unfair competition

A software company suspected one of its former employees and shareholders of having established a competing business which was allegedly engaging in various unfair competition practices, including employee poaching, free-riding, disparagement, disruption of its business and infringement of its software.

At that stage, the company did not have sufficient evidence to conclusively establish these alleged practices and bring substantive proceedings against its competitor.

Our team therefore obtained court-authorised evidence-gathering measures under Article 145 of the French Code of Civil Procedure, which allows a party to obtain or preserve evidence before substantive proceedings are commenced. These measures were carried out at the competitor’s premises and resulted in the collection of both hard-copy and electronic documents and data relevant to the suspected misconduct.

Based on the evidence obtained, the firm subsequently initiated proceedings on the merits against the competing company before the competent Commercial Court, seeking an order requiring it to immediately cease the disputed practices, subject to a daily penalty payment for non-compliance, and compensation for the financial losses resulting from the loss of customers and market share, as well as for the non-pecuniary harm suffered by our client.

The firm also brought claims against the founder of the competing company in his personal capacity for breaches of his non-compete obligations.

To substantiate and quantify our client’s financial losses, the firm instructed independent financial experts to conduct a market analysis of the software sector in which both companies operated.