A Jurisprudential Evaluation Of Post-Termination Non-Compete Obligations: Caution Over One Year!

Competition law enforcers are tend to demonstrate a rather draconian approach against post-termination restrictions. The underlying rationale behind such approach is the fact that post-termination restrictions are objectively harder to justify when compared to the restrictions imposed during an ongoing agreement. In other words, an ongoing relationship provides more elbowroom to discuss the economic rationale of a non-compete obligation. However, in the world of incessant creative destruction elicited by digitalization and technological developments, the circulation of goods and services have started to evolve around an olio of multi-dimensional know-hows and core innovations. Accordingly, as the associated level of essential know-how bilaterally transferred by undertakings increase, the contracting parties are urged to seek a post-termination protection for their most valuable commodities and core know-hows, which may take years to build from scratch.