Rippling, a US-headquartered multibillion dollar human resources company, has claimed a rival company used an employee in Rippling’s Dublin office to unlawfully obtain its trade secrets.
The High Court’s Mr Justice Mark Sanfey on Tuesday lifted an order that had prevented media reporting of an application by Rippling for interim orders made ex parte (one side only represented) last week in proceedings against Keith O’Brien, with an address at Ringfort Avenue, Balrothery, Co Dublin.
The lifting of the restrictions was sought by barrister Shelley Horan, instructed by Matheson LLP, for Rippling.
In its action, People Centre, Inc. (trading as Rippling), incorporated in Delaware with head offices in San Francisco, and Rippling Ireland Ltd, with offices in Temple Bar, Dublin 2, wants orders including ones compelling Mr O’Brien to provide full details of any of the company’s confidential information communicated by him since October 2024 to any third parties and the identities of any such parties. It also sought orders restraining sharing of such information and requiring its return.
Rippling claims any such information amounts to a trade secret within the meaning of regulations made under the relevant EC Directive. It is seeking damages, including aggravated and exemplary damages, on grounds including alleged breach of the regulations, breach of contract and conspiracy to injure Rippling.
Last Wednesday, Mr Justice Sanfey granted interim orders, returnable to March 24th, against Mr O’Brien restraining from him using, or disclosing to any third parties, any confidential information of the plaintiff’s and requiring him to hand over devices.
On Friday, Rippling’s lawyers returned to court alleging Mr O’Brien was in “significant” breach of the interim orders and had “absconded”. The court was told, when a court-appointed solicitor attended at Rippling’s Dublin premises earlier on Friday, Mr O’Brien failed to hand over his phone and locked himself into a bathroom for a time before leaving the premises.
When informed of the consequences for noncompliance with the order, he had said he was willing to “take the risk”, the judge was told. His laptop was in the possession of the solicitor, the court heard.
The judge permitted Marcus Dowling SC, with Ms Horan, to bring an application, returnable to March 19th, to have Mr O’Brien brought before the court over alleged contempt.
At Rippling’s request, the judge had imposed reporting restrictions pending the matter returning to court or further order. Those restrictions were lifted on Tuesday in light of proceedings having been issued in the US the previous day, March 17th, by Rippling against Deel alleging, among other things, misappropriation of trade secrets.
In court documents in the Irish proceedings, it is alleged Mr O’Brien has committed breaches of the EU (Protection of Trade Secrets) Regulations and has engaged, and is engaging, in illegal actions and contractual breaches, including utilising, disseminating and/or publishing the plaintiff’s trade secrets.
In an affidavit, Christopher Campbell, vice-president of Rippling, said Mr O’Brien commenced employment with Rippling Ireland in July 2023, his role as global payroll compliance manager is a senior one, involving duties for the parent company as well as the Irish one, and his annual salary is $150,000 (€137,000).
He said evidence identified by Rippling to date suggests Mr O’Brien’s alleged actions are being directed or influenced by Deel.
Rippling claims it began to suspect a mole when Deel tried to hire members of its global payroll operations team via WhatsApp and after a journalist sought comment about internal Rippling Slack messages relating to payments into Russia. A security review showed Mr O’Brien had searched for those messages, it has claimed.
It is claimed Rippling’s security team analysis showed, up to March 2nd last, Mr O’Brien had actioned 4,213 total public channel preview requests to see Slack messages with the vast bulk of those done on his phone.
