Competition is free, but it has limits. A competitor who disparages you, imitates your products to create confusion, poaches your key staff or shamelessly profits from your investments is not simply doing business: they commit a fault that causes you compensable harm. But you still have to react quickly and well.
Maître Léa Scemama defends businesses that are victims of unfair conduct in Paris and assists those whose liability is sought, with the same rigour in evidence and strategy.
Acts of unfair competition
Case law has identified four broad categories: disparagement (casting discredit on a competitor or their products), confusion (imitating another's distinctive signs to mislead customers), disorganisation (mass poaching, order diversion, disclosure of secrets) and customer diversion by unfair means. The firm precisely characterises the facts to ground the action on the right basis.
Economic free-riding
Free-riding sanctions those who place themselves in a company's wake to profit, without consideration, from its reputation or its efforts and investments. Unlike unfair competition, it requires neither direct competition nor a risk of confusion: taking over another's concept, universe or investments can suffice to engage liability.
Poaching, customers and trade secrets
The departure of an employee or partner to a competitor is lawful, but it becomes wrongful when accompanied by organised poaching, misappropriation of customer files, breach of a non-competition clause or exploitation of confidential information protected as trade secrets. The firm acts to stop such conduct and obtain compensation.
The civil liability of the business
Beyond competition, business life generates liability claims: breach of an information or advisory duty, abusive breaking-off of negotiations, harm to image or reputation. The firm brings such claims or defends the business being pursued, ensuring a fair assessment of the loss.
Acting fast: evidence, interim relief and compensation
Facing unfair conduct, speed is decisive. The firm organises the evidence (bailiff report, investigative measures before any trial), seeks the immediate cessation of the disturbance through interim proceedings and acts on the merits to obtain compensation for the loss, including lost profit and harm to image. In defence, it challenges the reality of the fault and above all the extent of the loss claimed.
Why a lawyer in unfair competition?
These actions are won on evidence and characterisation. The lawyer secures the material, chooses the right basis and procedure, and connects the case with your contractual clauses (non-competition, confidentiality) and, if necessary, with commercial litigation before the competent court.
Frequently asked questions
What is unfair competition?
It is a competitor's wrongful conduct which, without infringing an exclusive right, causes harm through means contrary to fair trade practices: disparagement, imitation creating confusion, disorganisation or diversion of customers. It is sanctioned on the basis of civil liability.
What is the difference between unfair competition and free-riding?
Unfair competition presupposes a competitive relationship and a risk of confusion. Free-riding (parasitism) sanctions placing oneself in another's wake to profit, without cost, from their investments or reputation, even absent direct competition.
Can a former employee divert my customers?
Freedom to work allows a former employee to start a competing activity, but they commit a fault if they divert customers by unfair means, breach a valid non-competition clause or use confidential information. Such conduct is sanctionable.
How is unfair competition proven?
Evidence is often the crux. Bailiff reports, customer statements and investigative measures ordered by the judge before any trial help build a solid file. A swift and methodical reaction is essential to secure the evidence.