{"id":7568,"date":"2023-05-05T15:30:36","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T13:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.avocat-desrumaux.fr\/unfair-competition-ive-been-accused-of-diverting-customers-unfair-competition\/"},"modified":"2025-02-10T10:05:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T09:05:16","slug":"unfair-competition-ive-been-accused-of-diverting-customers-unfair-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.avocat-desrumaux.fr\/en\/unfair-competition-ive-been-accused-of-diverting-customers-unfair-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Unfair competition: I&#8217;ve been accused of diverting customers &amp; unfair competition"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"7568\" class=\"elementor elementor-7568 elementor-4399\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-ce2a7d1 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"ce2a7d1\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-412a3fd\" data-id=\"412a3fd\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-c1b57be elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"c1b57be\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2><strong>What is unfair competition?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Unfair competition is a business practice that consists in violating existing competition rules to gain an advantage over competitors in an illegal manner. It can take many forms, such as: counterfeiting, commercial parasitism, misleading advertising, misappropriation of customers, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>In France, unfair competition is punishable under the Commercial Code and the Intellectual Property Code. Victims of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avocat-desrumaux.fr\/concurrence-deloyale-suis-je-en-tort\/\">unfair competition<\/a> can take legal action to obtain damages, as well as emergency measures to put a stop to illegal practices.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Can I take my competitor&#8217;s business?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It all depends on how you build up your customer base. In principle, it is not forbidden to attract customers who normally use another service provider.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, the way in which you do it can be considered unfair, and characterize a case of customer misappropriation, which is illegal.<\/p>\n<p>Customer &#8220;detour&#8221; consists in seeking to divert customers away from a competitor&#8217;s business by using illegal or unfair means, which can be :<\/p>\n<ul>\n  <li><strong>Denigration:<\/strong> the dissemination of false information or rumours about a competitor&#8217;s products or services, with the aim of damaging its reputation and persuading customers to change supplier.<\/li>\n  <li><strong>Use of confidential data:<\/strong> the illegal use of fraudulently obtained confidential information, such as customer lists, marketing plans, etc.<\/li>\n  <li><strong>Offering excessive discounts or benefits:<\/strong> offering excessive price reductions or other financial advantages to attract competitors&#8217; customers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, if you refrain from using unfair means, you can perfectly well solicit customers who usually use another service provider to offer them your services.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Can I canvass my former employer&#8217;s clientele?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve left one company to set up a competitor, there are a number of things you need to watch out for.<\/p>\n<p>If you have signed an employment contract <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avocat-desrumaux.fr\/en\/non-competition-clause-employment-contract\/\">with a non-competition clause<\/a>, it is possible that this clause prohibits you from carrying out an activity that competes with that of your former employer for a given period after the end of your employment contract.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avocat-desrumaux.fr\/la-clause-de-confidentialite-du-contrat-de-travail\/\">employment contract may contain a non-solicitation clause<\/a>. A non-solicitation clause prohibits an employee from soliciting his former employer&#8217;s customers or suppliers for a specified period after leaving the company. This clause is often included in\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is unfair competition? Unfair competition is a business practice that consists in violating existing competition rules to gain an advantage over competitors in an illegal manner. It can take many forms, such as: counterfeiting, commercial parasitism, misleading advertising, misappropriation of customers, and so on. In France, unfair competition is punishable under the Commercial Code &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.avocat-desrumaux.fr\/en\/unfair-competition-ive-been-accused-of-diverting-customers-unfair-competition\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Unfair competition: I&#8217;ve been accused of diverting customers &amp; unfair competition&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classifiee"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.10 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Unfair competition - Desrumaux Avocats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Unfair competition is a business practice that consists of violating the rules of competition in order to gain an advantage.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.avocat-desrumaux.fr\/en\/unfair-competition-ive-been-accused-of-diverting-customers-unfair-competition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unfair competition - Desrumaux Avocats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Unfair competition is a business practice that consists of violating the rules of competition in order to gain an advantage.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.avocat-desrumaux.fr\/en\/unfair-competition-ive-been-accused-of-diverting-customers-unfair-competition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Desrumaux Avocats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-05T13:30:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-10T09:05:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Desrumaux Avocats\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Desrumaux Avocats\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.avocat-desrumaux.fr\/en\/unfair-competition-ive-been-accused-of-diverting-customers-unfair-competition\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.avocat-desrumaux.fr\/en\/unfair-competition-ive-been-accused-of-diverting-customers-unfair-competition\/\",\"name\":\"Unfair competition - Desrumaux Avocats\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.avocat-desrumaux.fr\/en\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-05T13:30:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-10T09:05:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.avocat-desrumaux.fr\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/99259c27e57b4c1503842b57a4b54139\"},\"description\":\"Unfair competition is a business practice that consists of violating the rules of competition in order to gain an advantage.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.avocat-desrumaux.fr\/en\/unfair-competition-ive-been-accused-of-diverting-customers-unfair-competition\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.avocat-desrumaux.fr\/en\/unfair-competition-ive-been-accused-of-diverting-customers-unfair-competition\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.avocat-desrumaux.fr\/en\/unfair-competition-ive-been-accused-of-diverting-customers-unfair-competition\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Desrumaux Avocats\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.avocat-desrumaux.fr\/en\/home-page\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Unfair competition: I&#8217;ve been accused of diverting customers &amp; 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