Shopee lawsuit against ex-employee dismissed by Singapore judge

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A Singapore judge has dismissed a lawsuit that Shopee made against Lim Teck Yong, a former senior employee in its Singapore and Brazil offices.

Shopee had sued Lim – who last held the executive director of operations position at Shopee Brazil – for joining ByteDance weeks after leaving his Shopee post in mid-2023. The ecommerce firm contended that the move violated non-competition and non-solicitation restrictions in Lim’s employment contracts.

The company thus sought interim injunctions to prevent Lim from joining ByteDance and soliciting Shopee clients and employees. It also sought a springboard injunction to bar Lim from joining any Shopee competitor.

However, Justice Kwek Mean Luck found that Shopee did not show “a serious question to be tried” on whether there is a breach to the non-competition and non-solicitation restrictions, as well as the springboard injunction.

For the non-competition restriction, Shopee argued that Lim was exposed to “general know-how” during regional management meetings, which the firm contended was confidential. But Kwek found “serious doubts” about a “lack of a legitimate proprietary interest” as well as the “reasonableness of the geographical restraint.”

The latter “would exclude Lim from being employed in all the markets where Shopee was operating,” said Kwek as shown on the judgment text, which he doubts would be “regarded as reasonable.”

For the non-solicitation restriction and springboard injunction, Shopee did not show that Lim was “about to breach these restrictions,” or that there was “risk of misuse” of information, respectively.

“I find that Shopee has not shown that it has any prospects of success which, in substance and reality, exist,” said Kwek. “Its prospects are so small that they lack substance and reality.”

Lim had joined Shopee in August 2015. He primarily held positions at its Singapore headquarters, last holding the executive director of regional operations before moving to Brazil in January 2021.

According to the judgment text, Lim has served as the leader for TikTok Shop governance and experience in the middle platform team since September 11, 2023.