The High Court has ruled that information contained in invoices was confidential so as to enable JN Dairies ('JND') to bring an action for breach of confidence against Johal Dairies and Mr Singh. JND and Johal were both wholesale dairy companies whose customer base were small shops and independent supermarkets. Mr Singh worked as a driver for JND delivering products to customers daily and distributing invoices weekly. Two days after Mr Singh stopped working for JND, he entered its premises and took invoices that had been left ready for the drivers. He then handed those invoices to a director of Johal and visited the customers on his old round to persuade them to transfer their business to Johal.

The High Court found that Johal had made use of the invoices to approach and negotiate with JND's customers. On the evidence, the information contained within the invoices was found to have considerable commercial value, and this was demonstrated by the fact that Johal had paid Mr Singh £40,000 for it. There was fierce competition between the parties and both took steps to keep the information in their invoices confidential. Rather than liken the case to others relating to the enforcement of post-termination express covenants implied into employment contracts (which would require the content of the documents to satisfy a more stringent test of confidentiality), the High Court applied a three step test to determine whether the invoices were protected by the law of confidential information. For a breach of confidential information:

  • it must be confidential in nature (that is, not in the public domain);
  • it must be disclosed in circumstances importing an obligation of confidence; and
  • there must have been a breach of that confidence by the person receiving the information to the detriment of the person imparting it.

The High Court found that information about quantities of goods bought by a particular customer and the prices charged had the necessary degree of confidentiality. Although Mr Singh had stolen the information, and therefore it was artificial to say that information has been disclosed to him, the judge was satisfied that a duty of confidentiality was imposed on both Mr Singh and Johal. The use of the information had been unauthorised and had resulted in the loss by JND of some of its customers. On this basis, the High Court ruled that there was an actionable breach of confidence.

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