HR Tech Firm Rippling Sues Rival Deel for Corporate Espionage

HR software provider Rippling has sued competitor Deel for allegedly planting a spy in its Dublin office to steal trade secrets, court documents [PDF] showed on Monday. Rippling claims the employee, identified as D.S., systematically searched internal Slack channels for competitor information, including sales leads and pitch decks.

The company discovered the alleged scheme through a "honeypot" trap -- a specially created Slack channel mentioned in a letter to Deel executives. When served with a court order to surrender his phone, D.S. locked himself in a bathroom before fleeing, according to the lawsuit. "We're all for healthy competition, but we won't tolerate when a competitor breaks the law," said Vanessa Wu, Rippling's general counsel. Both companies operate multibillion-dollar HR platforms, with Rippling valued at $13.5 billion and Deel at over $12 billion.

Somebody loves their job

[zawarski]

Give that employee a raise. That level of commitment is rare now a days.

Actual footage of the spy

[FictionPimp]

https://media1.giphy.com/media... [giphy.com]

I'll wait for the Tom Cruise movie

[greytree]

...of the John Grisham book.

HR SaaS companies!

[Compaq Disk Rereader]

Oh no. Stop. That's unethical behavior.

On the other hand...

[sacrilicious]

When served with a court order to surrender his phone, D.S. locked himself in a bathroom before fleeing

Let's not rush to judgement here, maybe he was just a pedophile.

Re:

[ItsJustAPseudonym]

Also, I'm intrigued by the concept that he locked himself in a bathroom AND THEN fled. I'm hoping he did that via a window, and not other methods that spring to mind.

I look forward to the trial.

[MachineShedFred]

This is a fucked company moment, and if Rippling has what they say they have, there's no way on earth they settle.

That guy is headed for the deepest of bankruptcies and a fucked career. If there is an arrangement between that guy and Deel that comes up in discovery, they're going to fuck them sideways with a garden weasel, and everyone involved is going to discover the length, width, and breadth of the shaft in the most uncomfortable way possible.

I look forward to it, because this shit should not be tolera

Where else have they planted spies?

[laughingskeptic]

It is unlikely that this is DEEL's only spy if they decided to get into the spying business. Who else has had a string of "bad luck" competing with DEEL?