Contracts of employment: When employee competition is lawful

In Faccenda Chicken Ltd v Fowler and others 5 12.85 CA and [1984] IRLR 61 (High Court) the Court of Appeal upholds the High Court's ruling that, in the absence of a restrictive covenant, a company's former employees were free to make use of their knowledge of that company's customers and pricing structure while working for a competitor, thereby enabling them to solicit trade from their former employer's customers. The court's ruling also gives valuable guidance on the scope of the duty of confidence both during employment and after it had ended.