15 July 2014

Restrictive Covenants

Restrictive covenants are an important tool for most businesses seeking to limit the spread of their trade secrets and good will by ex-employees. A common example would be the desire to prohibit an ex-employee from soliciting a business’s customers. Post-employment restrictions are, however, generally void to start with. The position changes if the clause is intended to protect the legitimate business interests and does not extend beyond what is reasonably required to protect those interests. The clause must be shown to not just stifle lawful competition. Restrictive covenants therefore need to be carefully drafted, as a widely written clause is unlikely to satisfy the test of reasonable requirement. For example, a clause stipulating that a person should not be employed by anyone within a particular industry will almost certainly fail. Additionally, a clause restricting contact with all a business’s clients/customers will also be likely to fail as this would cover future clients/customers thus failing the reasonableness test. This entry is intended as general information only, but should you require legal advice on the issue please contact us

Gibraltar Employment Law

Welcome to the Gibraltar Employment Law Blog where I hope I will be able to provide you with a growing amount of information on Gibraltar Employment Law over the next few weeks and months. Keep checking back to find answers to your questions... As always, all information on this blog is only intended to provide some basic information on Gibraltar Employment Law and no action should be taken in reliance on it without first seeking specific legal advice.