Unfair competition lawyers in Lyon

Is a competitor copying your offering, approaching your clients using confidential data, or publicly calling your products into question? Your business may equally find itself accused of copying a concept, a campaign or a customer journey.

Based in the Lyon metropolitan area, Cabinet Bouchara & Avocats assists businesses facing unfair competition or free-riding, whether as claimant or defendant.

Our team examines the facts, secures the evidence and works out with the business whether to negotiate, act urgently or go to court.

Talk to our team in Lyon

Our unfair competition services in Lyon

Unfair competition and free-riding fall under civil liability where wrongful conduct causes loss to a business (French Civil Code, art. 1240).

Cabinet Bouchara & Avocats assists Lyon businesses faced with acts of unfair competition or free-riding. Our lawyers act both as claimant and as defendant, from preserving the evidence through to negotiation or court proceedings.

Analysing the facts and preserving the evidence

Similarity between two offerings, approaching a competitor’s clients or hiring an employee often fall within the normal play of competition and are not, in themselves, enough to establish fault.

Our lawyers examine the facts in chronological order, compare the offerings or practices at issue and check whether they go beyond the normal play of competition.

Our first priority is to secure evidence that may disappear. Depending on what is needed, we instruct a judicial commissioner, review commercial and financial records, or apply for an investigative measure to obtain documents held by the other party (French Code of Civil Procedure, art. 145).

Putting a stop to copying or a likelihood of confusion

A competitor may take up the get-up of a product, a company’s visual codes, the layout of a website, packaging or a sales pitch without directly reproducing a registered trademark.

We compare the offerings as a whole and check whether the similarities reflect industry practice or create a real likelihood of confusion for customers.

Depending on the urgency, we send a cease-and-desist letter, negotiate the withdrawal of the disputed material, or apply to the court in summary or main proceedings.

Where the facts also engage trademark law, copyright or design protection, we can bring infringement proceedings in parallel. An application for customs intervention may also be filed to help detect and detain suspect goods.

Responding to commercial disparagement

Statements circulated to customers, distributors or partners, or posted on social media, can damage a business’s commercial reputation.

We have the statements preserved, identify their author and measure how widely they spread, before seeking their removal or compensation for the loss suffered.

We also check whether the statements amount to disparagement or to defamation, since different rules apply.

Acting against client poaching or disruption of your business

The departure of an employee, a commercial agent or a partner is sometimes followed by rapid and closely targeted approaches to the client base.

We check where the information used came from, which obligations apply and whether those approaches went beyond the limits of lawful competition.

Where the facts involve the use of contact details, client files or other personal data, the case may also raise GDPR and data protection issues in Lyon.

We distinguish between acts committed before the employee left, those carried out afterwards, and those for which the new employer may be held responsible.

Protecting your investments against free-riding

Free-riding may be established where a business unduly profits from the work, the reputation or the investment of another operator.

The firm acts in particular where a campaign, a brand universe, a digital journey, a launch strategy or a sufficiently developed concept has been taken up.

We document the investment actually made and what the competitor took without putting in comparable work. Taking up an idea, a trend or a general concept is not, in itself, enough to establish free-riding.

Defending a business facing a claim

We also defend businesses served with a cease-and-desist letter or a claim for unfair competition or free-riding.

The defence may turn on the absence of fault, the commonplace nature of the elements taken up, the absence of any likelihood of confusion, the lawfulness of the approaches made, or the absence of proven loss.

We review the evidence produced, the calculation of the loss and the proportionality of the measures sought.

Assessing the loss suffered

Loss is not limited to a drop in turnover. We assess it in particular on the basis of:

• contracts or clients lost;
• reduced margins;
• costs incurred in responding to the conduct;
• damage to the business’s image;
• investment or economic value captured;
• the savings unduly made by the party at fault.

Where necessary, we work with the business’s finance team or with an expert.

Negotiating, acting urgently or going to court

Sending a cease-and-desist letter straight away is not always the right move. Where the evidence is thin, it is better to have the facts formally recorded first.

We tailor the relief sought to the objective:

• putting a stop to copying or unfair approaches to clients;
• withdrawal or amendment of a website, an advertisement or packaging;
• return or deletion of confidential data;
• negotiation of an undertaking or a settlement agreement;
• publication of a corrective statement;
• compensation for the loss suffered;
• dismissal or reduction of the claims brought against the business.

Once the evidence is secured, we decide with the client between negotiation, summary proceedings and proceedings on the merits.

Would you like a situation assessed quickly? Contact our team in Lyon

Examples of matters handled for Lyon businesses

Putting a stop to the copying of a company’s visual codes

The firm acted for a business in the Lyon metropolitan area whose competitor had taken up several elements of its website and sales materials: colours, imagery, page structure and wording.

Our team compared the materials, had the published online content formally recorded by a judicial commissioner, then sent a cease-and-desist letter to obtain their amendment.

Responding to client poaching after an employee’s departure

A business found that several of its clients had been approached shortly after a colleague left. The messages sent showed precise knowledge of the contacts, the prices charged and the contract renewal dates.

We reviewed the applicable clauses, traced the origin of the data and separated the former employee’s acts from those of his new company. The firm then brought proceedings, preceded by an evidence-seizure measure ordered under article 145 of the French Code of Civil Procedure.

Protecting a campaign and commercial investment

A Lyon company had spent several months creating an advertising campaign, its visuals and its messaging. Shortly after launch, a competitor took up its mechanics and several elements of its presentation.

The firm gathered the briefs, invoices and creative files, then compared the two campaigns to establish precisely which investment had been taken up. Proceedings based on free-riding were brought before the Lyon Economic Activities Court.

Putting a stop to statements circulated to distributors

A business in the Lyon region learned that a competitor was calling the compliance of its products into question with several distributors. Those statements had prompted requests for explanations and delayed certain orders.

We gathered the emails and witness statements, then applied to the Lyon Economic Activities Court in summary proceedings to stop them being circulated.

Defending a business accused of free-riding

A company received a cease-and-desist letter alleging that it had taken up a competitor’s offering and investment. The competitor demanded the immediate withdrawal of several materials together with substantial compensation.

We compared the offerings, checked whether the elements claimed really belonged to the competitor, and challenged both the sum claimed and the withdrawal measures sought.

A first instinct: do not contact the competitor straight away.
Keep the pages and messages concerned, your earlier materials, the relevant contracts and the documents evidencing your investment. Never access an account or a mailbox without authorisation — irregularly collected evidence can undermine the case.

Appearing before the Lyon courts

Where a dispute between businesses falls to the Lyon courts, the firm can appear before the Lyon Economic Activities Court or the Lyon Judicial Court, depending on the status of the parties, the rights relied on and the relief sought.

Where a trademark, a copyright, a design or a geographical indication has been infringed, the case may fall to a specially designated judicial court (French Code of Judicial Organisation, art. D. 211-6-1).

Which court has territorial jurisdiction depends in particular on the defendant’s domicile, the place where the harmful event occurred and the district in which the damage was suffered (French Code of Civil Procedure, arts. 42 and 46). This check matters all the more where the conduct took place online or produced effects in several regions.

We check jurisdiction as soon as the file is opened, to avoid a challenge or a transfer.