Restriction in Confidentiality Agreement Held to be Unenforceable

On 14 July 2010 the High Court ruled that a restrictive provision in a confidentiality agreement was anti-competitive by both object and effect and breached Article 101 of the TFEU. The Court considered the provision in question to have far exceeded what was reasonably necessary to protect the claimant's confidential information and declared the provision void and unenforceable.

The claimant, Mr Jones, founded CMP Group, a company which provides assistance to businesses acquiring photocopying equipment, including multi-functional office automation devices (MFDs). CMP had a trading relationship with Ricoh, one of the worlds leading manufactures of MFDs, and entered into a confidentiality...