Unfair competition lawyer Paris: protecting your economic value.

Open competition is the principle: every player may win over customers, set its prices and copy ideas that are not protected by any exclusive right. Competition becomes unfair when it is accompanied by a fault within the meaning of Article 1240 of the Civil Code: sustained confusion with a competitor, disparagement, disorganisation through the capture of employees or files, parasitism through the capture of economic value. The sanction is civil liability, never a monopoly.

There are three cumulative conditions. First, an individualised economic value of the claimant must be identified: flagship product, know-how, reputation, documented investments. Second, the competitor's intention to follow in the claimant's wake, without consideration or risk-taking, must be shown. Third, compensable harm must be established. The Court of Cassation reiterates that longevity or success is not enough (Cass. com. 26 June 2024, the Decathlon and Maisons du Monde cases).

Lawful criticism may target a product or a service in an objective framework, without spreading degrading allegations about an identifiable competing business. Disparagement targets a competitor by name with derogatory statements intended to divert its clients. The decisive criterion is the object: criticising a product remains permissible, whereas disparaging a business or its manager in order to capture its clients is a fault and engages the liability of its author.

No. Freedom to work allows an employee to leave their employer and a competitor to hire them. Poaching becomes unfair when it is massive, organised, targeted at key roles and accompanied by underhand manoeuvres: approaches made while the contract is still running, capture of files, systematic solicitation of identified clients. Established internal disorganisation of the competitor then opens an action for damages.

No. To take effect, the clause must be limited in time, in space and in scope of activity, protect the employer's legitimate interests, and provide for effective and proportionate financial compensation paid to the employee. Without compensation, or with derisory compensation, the clause is null. Breach of a valid clause exposes the employee and engages the liability of the new employer as a complicit third party.

Registering a trade mark with the INPI (the French intellectual property office) confers an enforceable exclusive right and makes defence easier through an infringement action. Without registration, notorious use may support an unfair competition action based on confusion, but the evidence becomes markedly more demanding. Monitoring competitors' filings, domain names and sponsored Google references is part of the minimum watch for a Paris SME.

An urgent application (référé) requires a manifestly unlawful disturbance or imminent damage. Article 873 of the Code of Civil Procedure allows the president of the court to order protective measures (cessation, removal, sequestration, daily penalty) or to award an interim payment where the obligation is not seriously contestable. An hour-to-hour urgent application is possible where urgency is established, sometimes within 48 hours. Its purpose is not to judge the merits, but to prevent the damage from worsening.

Five years from the day on which the right holder knew, or should have known, the facts enabling them to act, in accordance with Article 2224 of the Civil Code. For continuing practices, the starting point moves forward with each new act. The firm systematically checks the limitation period from the first reading of the documents so as not to bring an action that is doomed from the outset.

Several complementary methods apply. The loss of margin on the diverted turnover, calculated from cost accounting. The cost of restoring the business (replacement recruitment, response campaign). Damage to image, which is harder to objectivise. And, since Cass. com. 12 February 2020, No. 17-31.614, taking into account the undue advantage gained by the author of the practice, adjusted in proportion to the respective business volumes.

No. Unfair competition may be invoked even where there is no direct competition, provided that the fault committed causes harm to the claimant business. This covers cases of parasitism through the capture of know-how in a neighbouring sector, or of disparagement by a commercial partner who is not a competitor in the strict sense.

For disputes between traders or between commercial companies, the commercial court has jurisdiction. For disputes involving a non-trader or concerning mixed acts, the judicial court may hear the case. Territorially, the court of the defendant's registered office or of the place where the damage occurred has jurisdiction. In Paris, the Paris commercial court has a specialised chamber accustomed to unfair competition litigation.

Build the evidence immediately: IT logs of transfers, backups of business e-mails, statements from the clients who were solicited. In its decision Cass. com. 7 December 2022, No. 21-19.860 (Foncia/Valhestia), the Court of Cassation reiterates that the mere possession of confidential information obtained during the performance of the employment contract constitutes an act of unfair competition, without any need to prove additional wrongful use.

European and French case law accepts keyword advertising that reproduces a competitor's trade mark, provided that the sponsored ad does not maintain confusion with the trade mark itself and allows a reasonably well-informed internet user to distinguish the products. If the ad misleads as to origin or suggests a commercial link that does not exist, an infringement action or an unfair competition action based on confusion becomes conceivable.

Often, yes. A detailed formal notice, which characterises the facts precisely, cites the relevant decisions and sets a short negotiation window, leads in a majority of cases to the end of the wrongful acts and to a settlement agreement. Court proceedings remain the weapon for cases where negotiation fails or the acts continue despite the formal notice.

A central role. A digital bailiff's report fixes evidence that can be dated and relied on before the judge (website capture, e-mail, LinkedIn post, sponsored ad). A physical report fixes a shop layout, a display stand, a product. An Article 145 application under the Code of Civil Procedure authorises the bailiff to enter the defendant's premises to seize items before they disappear, under judicial sequestration until the adversarial hearing.