This action was initiated on April 27, 2006, when the applicant, SYSCO Food Services of Eastern Wisconsin, LLC (“SYSCO”), filed a complaint referred to as defendants Emilio Ziccarelli (“Ziccarelli”) and Anthony DeBartolo (“DeBartolo”). SYSCO argues four claims against the defendants: (1) breach of contract, (2) breach of duty of good faith and fair action, (3) conspiracy and (4) unlawful interference in the contract and in potential commercial or economic benefit. Although SYSCO makes four claims, it is not unreasonable to say that at the heart of its complaint are employment contracts signed by each of the defendants at the time of their recruitment by SYSCO (or shortly thereafter). Restrictions on the use or disclosure of customer information may be subject to restrictive agreements. Rollins Burdick, 101 wis.2d at 468-69, 304 N.W.2d at 756. As a result, restrictions on the disclosure or use of client lists are considered commercial restrictions and are subject to restrictions similar to those of other non-competition obligations. See Gary Van Zeeland Talent Inc. v. Sandas, 84 Wis.2d 202, 218, 267 N.W.2d 242, 250 (Wis.1978); Nalco Chemical Co. v. Hydro Technologies, Inc., 984 F.2d 801, 803 (7. Cir.1993) (Wisconsin Law).
In addition, a confidentiality agreement with an indeterminate period of time is not applicable and cannot be applied unless the client list is considered a trade secret. Nalco, 984 F.2d to 803. Often, an employer will sue for termination actions and damages to prevent a former employee who has signed a non-compete clause or other restrictive competition contract from violating that agreement after the worker resigns. Unlike these frequent cases, restrictive contractual remedies related to COVID-19 involve workers who have not resigned but have been dismissed by their former employers because of the global pandemic. In all these remedies, a common question arises: does an employer`s decision to dismiss employees during the current health crisis affect its ability to impose its restrictive alliances against these workers? Russell Beck: Yes, they are trade secrets. They are called confidentiality or confidentiality agreements. These are used to prevent employees and anyone who has access to your information from using or disclosing the information. What non-competitors do is add a layer of protection. You prevent an employee from leaving your company and working for a competitor in a role in which they could use this information.
Russell Beck: So different companies are going to impose non-competition bans for different reasons. Some will impose it to protect their trade secrets. Some companies will impose them to protect other legitimate business interests – protecting the customer relationship in which a company has invested. If a company comes to me and asks me whether it should enforce its non-competition commitments, I will look at the agreement, understand what the facts are and deliberate them as to whether they should enforce them or not.