Trusted employees leaked confidential data to rival firm, court rules

Abu Dhabi: For years, the two men had been trusted with sensitive information at their workplace, the kind of access that comes with responsibility, discretion and confidence from management. That trust, a court has ruled, was ultimately broken.

The Abu Dhabi Family and Civil Administrative Court has ordered the former colleagues to jointly pay Dh50,000 in compensation to the company they once worked for, after finding that confidential business information had been leaked to a competing firm.

Court records, according to Al Khaleej newspaper, show that the case began not with a lawsuit, but with internal suspicion. 

The company noticed that proprietary details, data meant to remain strictly in-house, had surfaced elsewhere. 

An internal investigation followed, leading first to one employee, who later admitted to passing information to a rival company operating in the same field. His employment was terminated soon after.

What emerged next deepened the breach. Investigators found that a second employee had quietly assisted, supplying additional internal data that was then forwarded outside the company. Both men acknowledged their roles during questioning.

The employer turned to the courts, seeking Dh150,000 in damages and arguing that the disclosures had caused financial harm, eroded competitive advantage and led to lost business opportunities. 

Criminal charges were also filed, accusing the first employee of unlawfully revealing confidential information obtained through his job, and the second of cooperating by providing and transmitting that data.

In the criminal case, the men were each fined Dh5,000. The civil claim, however, moved separately, with judges weighing the scale of the damage rather than the punishment.

In its ruling, the court noted that both employees held sensitive positions and were contractually bound to protect company information. While the company’s full compensation request was not granted, the court concluded that real material harm had occurred. It set damages at Dh50,000, to be paid jointly by the two former employees.