Malfeasance, Section 266, German Penal Code (StGB) is a standard of criminal law which plays a central role in business law.

A betrayal of business and company secrets is deemed to exist when an employee of a company, without authorisation to do so, discloses a business or company secret entrusted or made accessible to them under their employment contract during the term of the contract to a third party for the purposes of competition, self-interest and greed or with the intention of inflicting damage on the owner of the company.

It goes without saying that any company is interested in protecting plans, internal information and certain data and to prevent their disclosure to competitors. Immense competitive disadvantages can result from documents and other assets worthy of protection getting into the wrong hands.

Employees changing jobs to earn higher pay or enjoy better career opportunities with a competitor are a normal occurrence in daily life. This is absolutely legitimate in a free market with free competition. Yet a free market and free competition are subject to certain legal limitations. The betrayal of business and company secrets is a violation of such limits.

Fritsch Private Investigators can help to prevent or discover the betrayal of business and company secrets. In the process, preventive actions which make it more difficult to third parties gaining access to company-internal data are taken into consideration.