Confidentiality agreements are a very cost effective and vital way of protecting information.

In a fast moving world with an exponential rise in data, the saying “knowledge is power” has never been more apposite as reported in the press today, as below.

Barclays faces an €82 million lawsuit arising from claims that it misused confidential information from a prospective client which enabled it to thereafter  successfully purchase a target acquisition. Barclay’s former client claims it was seeking funding via Barclays. The transaction did not proceed and the claim is that the information disclosed to Barclays alerted the bank to the fact the target company was an attractive purchase.

It will be interesting to see how this case pans out and it is not known, at this stage, why the claimant did not proceed with buying the target company or how it links losses to those reasons to try and fix Barclays with legal liability.