A validade da cláusula de não concorrência após o término do contrato de trabalho

Abstract

In a highly competitive society, the knowledge acquired by the employee during his employment contract becomes extremely valuable since this knowledge is often objective, in other words, it refers to the list of clients, methods, technologies, creations, and innovations of a company’s field of operation, constituting "the soul of your business". With the importance of knowledge in the highly competitive society, the companies face the need to prevent that the knowledge acquired by an employee only by reason of his employment contract and his position in the company be used in the future with the purpose of competing with his former employer, which could lead to losses to the latter. The purpose of this study is to analyze the validity of the non-competition clause inserted in employment contracts, which is meant to be fulfilled especially after the termination of the employment contract relationship in view of the freedom of work principle set forth in the Federal Constitution. Legal doctrine and Jurisprudence constante are accepting the adoption of such clause, as long as it has followed some conditions and as long as the clause doesn’t configure an abusive restriction of the right to freedom of work.