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Court rules ex-employee must disclose contact details

09 June 2008

An ex-employee of recruiting firm Hays has been ordered to disclose details of his contacts on professional networking site LinkedIn after being accused of trying to steal clients.

Out-Law reports that Mark Ions set up a rival agency, Exclusive Human Resources, almost three weeks before resigning from his position.

Hays alleges that he copied and retained confidential information on clients and contacts to use in his own venture, constituting a breach of his contract of employment.

The company sought a pre-action disclosure at the high court from Mr Ions and his firm.

Mr Ions had offered to delete "the entirety of the Hays-linked contacts" from his LinkedIn network but Hays demanded full details and wanted the evidence preserved.

Although Ions then said he had arranged to delete the whole of his old LinkedIn network and had no other copy, the US operator of the service agreed to preserve the data.

Mr Ions' argument was that the information was put on the site during the course of his employment and with Hays' consent, adding that once uploaded it ceased to be confidential.

But Mr Justice David Richards dismissed the argument and said the evidence suggested he was acting for the benefit of his own business.

He ordered Mr Ions to disclose his LinkedIn business contacts and all emails sent or received between the account and Hays' computer network, as well as all documents showing his use of LinkedIn contacts and any business obtained from them.

David Buckle, partner in the employment team, comments: "This is a potential warning to those individuals who seek to use the internet as a means to breach their obligations to their employer, as internet based service providers, wherever they are based, are beginning to assist preventing such acts for fear of being dragged into legal action themselves."

The LinkedIn network has more than 20 million professional members across 150 industries.