WheelsEye alleges Zinka Logistics of tortious interference with its business
Brief Facts
The plaintiff filed this suit against the defendants seeking an interim injunction to restrain them from unlawful, tortious interference with its business and utilizing their proprietary information. WheelsEye, the plaintiff, has developed various trade secrets, techniques, technical know-how, business methods, and confidential information, giving it an edge over its competitors. Zinka is a competitor of WheelsEye, which is engaged in a similar type of business. The other defendants in the suit are former employees of WheelsEye, presently employed at Zinka.
The Allegations
The former employees of WheelsEye (defendants 2 to 4) had confidential information while serving their tenure at the company. After resignation, they have allegedly joined the Zinka company and have shared the plaintiff’s secrets with them. One of the defendants in the suit, who happens to be one of the former employees of WheelsEye, allegedly shared a spreadsheet with Zinka company which contains confidential and private details of more than a thousand workers employed by WheelsEye, with a column containing the words ‘ready to work’.
Zinka has also approached Markon Electronics Corporation Pvt. Ltd., the key vendor supplying proprietary devices, to breach confidentially and reveal WheelsEye’s know-how. The fully trained employees of WheelsEye in the functionality of the company’s business are privy to location-specific proprietary information and form a crucial component of WheelsEye’s business. In some cases, they received offer letters from Zinka, despite rejecting their advances. Zinka has even offered special bonuses and incentives to the employees of WheelsEye, provided they join Zinka in two days. Thus, the defendants are inducing WheelsEye’s employees to breach their contract to harm the company. Further, they are also resorting to false misrepresentations and defamation of WheelsEye to convince WheelsEye’s employees to join Zinka.
Court’s Decision
Justice Sanjeev Narula of the High Court of Delhi observed that WheelsEye had established a prima facie case and the balance of convenience also lies in their favor. Thus, the Court restrained the defendants from interfering in the business operation of Wheelseye through an en masse solicitation of its employees and restrained them from inducing in WheelsEye vendors, suppliers, and distributors to act in breach of their contract and confidentially obligations till the next date of hearing.
Reference: Wheelseye Technology India Pvt. Ltd v/s Zinka Logistics Solutions Pvt. Ltd CS(COMM) 421/2021
Author: Kashish Maheshwari, student at Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies
Disclaimer: This brief is intended to provide general guidance to the subject matter. It does not contain legal advice. For any specific advice/corrections, write to [email protected]
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