Spain court imprisons former employee for breach of confidentiality

 

A Criminal Court in Barcelona has sentenced a former employee of a multinational company to 3 years in prison for being found guilty of disclosing company secrets. The Court ruled that the employee had signed a confidentiality agreement with his Employee and was therefore der a contractual obligation of secrecy.

During his term of employment, the employee in question disclosed confidential information to a competitor by sending large volumes of documents with sensitive information using his personal e-mail account.

The information in question related to confidential data held by the company such as customer contacts, project bids sent to clients and proposals submitted by clients.

After forwarding this confidential information, the employee voluntarily terminated his employment with the company and immediately began employment with the competitor.