Directive (EU) 2016/943 on trade secrets

Rules, risk and compliance

Directive (EU) 2016/943 protects trade secrets across the Union, that is, know-how and confidential business information: formulas, customer lists, prices, processes, strategies.

Before it each country protected them in its own way; the directive set a common definition and common remedies against anyone who acquires, uses or discloses them unlawfully. Information is a trade secret if it meets three conditions: it is secret, not known to people in the sector; it has commercial value because it is secret; the company has taken reasonable steps to keep it confidential. Italy transposed it with Legislative Decree 63 of 2018, which updated articles 98 and 99 of the Industrial Property Code. The third condition is the one most often missing: information shared with third parties without a confidentiality obligation loses its protection, even if nobody stole it.