Featured on Employment Law This Week - An Illinois appellate court weighs in on social media and solicitation. The case involved a defendant who sent LinkedIn connection requests to three former coworkers, even though he had signed a non-solicit agreement. In considering whether social media activity violates non-solicitation agreements, other courts have drawn a distinction between passive social media activity and more active, direct activity. Though these requests were made directly to the former coworkers, the court in this case ruled that the content constituted passive activity because the defendant did not discuss his new job in any way, nor did he directly attempt to recruit his former coworkers. The court concluded that sending the connection requests did not violate the prohibition against inducing co-employees. Brian Spang, from Epstein Becker Green, has more:
“This particular agreement only prohibited direct inducement. It prohibited the employee from inducing other employees to leave. It could have and should have included a restriction against both direct and indirect inducement. This is important because the court pointed out in multiple places that the plaintiff did not present any evidence of ‘direct’ inducement. . . . I think that a non-compete or non-solicit agreement can specifically reference social media as a potential avenue for violation of the agreement.”
Watch the segment below and read our recent post on the topic.