Leading retailer, Majestic Wine Warehouses Limited, has been granted a High Court injunction against a former employee who emailed its chief executive threatening to harm the company by poaching its business customers. The court entered summary judgment against the man after he failed to engage in the proceedings and filed no defence to claims that his conduct had breached the duty of confidence he owed his former employers and covenants contained within his employment contract.
In his email, the former employee had stated: ‘I can’t wait to start poaching your business accounts….I am planning to make £100k off you…I can assure you of this – I will not stop until I have hurt Majestic’. He was also said to have used his Twitter account to make a number of disparaging remarks about the company. He had not acknowledged service of the proceedings and had refused requests to honour the company’s confidentiality and to comply with the terms of his contract.
Although the terms of the injunction granted were not as wide as Majestic had asked for, it forbids the former employee, inter alia, from misusing any confidential information – including customer lists – that he may have in his possession. Majestic is seeking more than £25,000 damages from the man in respect of the alleged breaches as well as substantial legal costs.