ABSTRACT
Employment non-compete clauses must be well regulated in each country’s legal framework since they can promote important restrictions on workers’ rights to work. These restrictions are more relevant if their effects continue in a post-contractual period because employers can seek damages if a non-compete clause is breached by a former worker. So, for this reason, it is pertinent to consider new challenges on this topic.
Understanding human behaviour when connected with social networks allows us to see the construction of new public space. Consequently, this idea is essential to analyse the potential impact of social networks in the breach of employment non-compete clauses. In 2015, a Danish court decided that updating a LinkedIn profile could be a violation of a covenant not to compete. This way, only by studying the importance of social networks in society and the economy it is possible to determine if the information shared by a worker on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn can cause damage to a former employer.
Thus, this chapter aims at understanding how employment non-compete clauses can be breached by workers with posts, Tweets or profile updates on social networks with an emphasis in Portuguese law. The analysis will start with a short overview of the subject in global labour law to focus on the non-competes as an individual problem.
