1、Violation of non-competition
Non-competition agreement is a legal arrangement stipulating that employees shall not work at companies or organizations that compete with an employer, during the term of or after the termination of the employment contract with the employer. This is a measure protecting a company’s trade secrets.
Frequent employee turnover is a key feature of market economy. However, high turnover rates bring great pressure to bear on the socio-economic environment, including losses of trade secrets. Statistics show that worker turnovers lead to 70% of trade secret losses. Some experts even say that “employment turnover and trade secret protection are inextricably linked with each other, like ‘twin brothers’”.
Because of the lack of relevant laws and regulations and a credit-based environment, professional managers, after terminating employment contracts with their former employers, make the employers suffer great losses. Some of them even reportedly violate professional ethics and criminal laws. The victims include small-and-medium-sized, privately owned, domestic companies and some of the world top 500 companies.
We can help companies screen the personal background and experience of thief professional managers, their work and credit standing when working for their former employers, and the performance of the non-competition clauses by their currently employed professional managers. This is to maximize protection of the companies’ legitimate rights and the fulfillment of thief business goals.
2、Exclusive rights to sales channels
Sales channels, the most immediate links between consumers and manufacturers, are about how goods can be sold to consumers. Anyone who controls this process controls a key market asset. Anyone who has exclusive sales channels and builds extensive, clearly defined, and controllable marketing channels is the winner on the market.
Sales channels and networks are independent of companies, which have to adapt themselves to them. If this independence runs out of control, the loyalty of distributors will suffer when a greater profit incentive is promised because distributors and manufacturers do not share the same interests.
To maximize profits, distributors and the competition might join together to take away the exclusive sales channels and networks that a company has spent years establishing and maintaining. This is immensely detrimental to the core interest of the company. It is then imperative that distributors and the competition be brought under stronger surveillance if the exclusive sales channels and business interests are to be protected.
3、Bid rigging
Bid rigging, rather common during tender invitations, greatly harms the interests of bidders and other tenderers. Though many bidders use strict qualification examination measures, announce tender invitation procedures, standards and results, hire independent bidding agencies, many tenderers try to think every possible way to achieve higher profitability through more elusive approaches.
Firstly, bid rigging can cause investors and, in the case of projects funded by the State, the State to suffer significantly. Secondly, bid rigging results in an industry that is not healthy and if, rampant for a long time, can distort the development of the industry. Thirdly, bid riggers offer bribe and rewards to form an alliance whose member include people from the bidding organization and companies willing to “play tenderers” or “share qualifications”. This has become part of the “underlying rules” in project contracting, a source of corruption. Surveillance of the people in charge of bidding and tenderers and investigation into relationships between related tenderers can greatly reduce risks associated with the above malpractice and better protect the rights of legitimate tenderers.
4、Ill-intended slandering against creditability
Slandering is an act that involves a business fabricating and disseminating false or misleading information to attack the commercial standing and commodity reputation of another business.
A business uses the media including Internet, TV and radio stations and newspapers to attack the commercial standing of the competition so as to obtain inappropriate competitive benefits. Some businesses attack the competition by spreading rumors in the form of disclosing what they call “underlying rules” in the business world or what they believe conducts that harm the rights of consumers. Some trumpet their strong points when using the competition as a comparison and wrongly describe and report the competition. Some even resort to direct slanders.
Companies often bring such cases of unfair competition to court. We can help them gather evidence that shows the competition slanders them, including online materials, written documents, interview videos, and other legally effective materials.
