A marketing and sales employee established a competing business while working for his employer and after the work relations ended, he contacted his employer's customers and recruited some of them as customers to his business.
The Court accepted the claim and held that the employee stole a confidential customer list and breached the duty of good faith and fiduciary towards his employer. A customer list may be a trade secret if it contains information that gives its owner a commercial advantage, confidential information that is not accessible to the public, as well as information, the creation of which involves the investment of effort, time and money. Between an employee and an employer there is a relationship of trust that creates for the employee fiduciary duties towards his employer. Here, the employment agreement prohibited the employee from competing with the employer or contacting the employer’s customers. The employee who was in charge of the Arab sector was the only one with access to a dedicated customer list for this sector, a list that had taken a lot of effort to compile. The employee hid the establishment of the competing business and his intentions from his employer and immediately after his employment ended, he used the secret customer list to contact customers and even recruited some of them and provided them with services. In doing so, the employee stole a trade secret of his employer and breached its fiduciary duty to act in good faith and therefore will compensate his employer.