We conduct investigations to ascertain behaviors that may be configured as unfair competition acts or ascertain the unfair competition of a former employee. The surveys are developed through intelligence activities (information gathering and analysis) and operational activities (dynamic observation, inspections, interviews, etc.). The purpose of the investigations is to collect documentary and testimonial evidence to be used in extrajudicial or judicial phase.

Unfair competition from a former employee: what the law says

The Constitution, the Penal Code, the Statute of Workers, the Civil Code and the Industrial Property Code: they all deal with unfair competition.

Below are the rules to which reference should be made to protect the former employer:

• Art 2598 c.c.: “acts capable of creating interference with the activity of a competitor”
• Art. 2598 n. 2, c.c “acts tending to affect the choices of the public incorrectly”;
• Art 2598 n. 3 “all acts of competition made in ways that do not conform to professional correctness”;
• lastly, when the acts of competition are committed with intent or with fault, the author of the same is bound to pay damages and the sentence can be published (c.c. article 2600).

The main acts of unfair competition are:  

• Acts of interference:

 - use of names or distinctive signs suitable for producing confusion with the names or distinctive signs used by another company;

- imitation of a competitor's products;

- acts capable of creating confusion with the products and with the activity of a competitor;

• Denigration acts:

- dissemination of news and appreciation on the products and activity of a competitor, suitable to determine the discredit.

• Acts of appropriation:

- appropriating the merits of a competitor's products

• Acts that do not conform to professional correctness:

- directly or indirectly use any other means not compliant with the principles of professional correctness and capable of damaging the competing company. Examples: industrial espionage, boycott, the acquisition by transfer of employees and confidential news pertaining to a competing company, violation of advertising rules, the so-called parasitic competition (imitation of everything or almost everything that the competitor does), steal confidential information concerning the production processes and the substances used to produce a given product.

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