In his latest judgement in Fetch.ai v Persons Unknown & Others [2021] EWHC 2254 (Comm) His Honour Judge Pelling QC makes clear that not all claims in equity under Breach of Confidence will fall within the scope of the Rome II Convention, “[S]ome will where they involve unfair competition and acts restricting free competition, but many others will not.”[para.12]
The case relates to confidential information in the form of an access key code, allowing an operator to trade in assets nominally credited to a cryptocurrencies Exchange Account. This confidential information had been acquired by persons unknown and used to perpetrate alleged fraud against the account holder, generating losses in excess of $2.6m.
It was contended that the decision of the Court of Appeal in Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Company Limited v Celgard, LLC [2020] EWCA (Civ) 1293; [2021] FSR 1 would lead one to the conclusion that all breach of confidence actions come within the scope of Rome II, Chapter II, Article 4.1., because the principles in Article 6 apply. Judge Pelling noted, however, what Article 6 is concerned with is anti-competitive practices and anti-competitive conduct, “Celgard had sought to restrain the defendant from placing its rival lithium-ion battery separators on the market in the UK or importing them into the UK on the basis that the defendant had obtained access to the claimant’s intellectual property in relation to its product; and, thus, what the defendant in that case was seeking to do was not merely a breach of confidence in equity, but was also contrary to reg.3.1 of The Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc) Regulations 2018.” [para.11]
Applying the Rome II Convention in this instance allowed Judge Pelling to provide injunctive relief and various orders for disclosure in favour of the account holder.
