employment european-union
Are anti-employee-poaching clauses in contracts enforceable?
<p>Many companies have so-called &quot;anti-poaching&quot; clauses in job contracts to prevent employees that leave from referring their old colleagues.</p>
<p>I heard some large tech companies have got in trouble with anti-trust agencies for backroom anti-solicitation agreements.</p>
<p>Are these clauses legal and enforceable within the European Union?</p>

<h2>Yes, so long as they do not overreach</h2>
<p>Please note this is a common law answer, it may not be applicable in civil law jurisdictions like most of the EU.</p>
<p>Like non-compete clauses and non-disclosure agreements, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-solicitation" rel="nofollow noreferrer">non-solicitation agreements</a> can be unenforceable restraints of trade if they are not reasonable.</p>
<p>Reasonable in this context means they are narrowly focused to protect legitimate business interests. A business does not have a “legitimate business interest” in preventing their competitors from poaching their employees in general - a business does not have a right to keep their employees. Therefore, analysis of the agreement must focus specifically on how an ex-employee can “unfairly” solicit compared to an unrelated corporate headhunter.</p>
<p>In practice, this makes them <em>hard</em> to enforce but they are not prohibited.</p>
