Lime, the San Francisco-based urban scooter company, has taken legal action against Hertz Corp, alleging unfair competition and accusing the rental car giant of hiring its senior engineers improperly. The lawsuit, filed in California federal court, seeks unspecified monetary damages and an injunction to “recover and protect its trade secrets.”
In the lawsuit, Lime has named Charlie Fang, who was formerly the head of engineering at the company, and another engineer as defendants. Lime claims that Fang, who joined Hertz as a senior vice president last year, violated his employment agreement to not solicit former colleagues after leaving the company.
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Hertz has denied the claims made in the lawsuit, stating that it “vehemently disagrees” with them. Meanwhile, Lime has alleged that the loss of engineers has significantly harmed its business, resulting in staff shortages, recruiting costs, and critical project delays.
The lawsuit also claims that Hertz sought to capitalize on Fang and his team’s knowledge of building “back-end infrastructure for ride-sharing and consumer facing apps so that it could gain a competitive advantage over other companies.” Hertz, which operates the Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty vehicle rental brands, is a subsidiary of Hertz Global Holdings Inc.
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In addition to Fang, Lime’s former head of supply engineering, Kai Cong, was also named as a defendant. The lawsuit alleges that Cong improperly downloaded confidential Lime files before his departure in December.
Hertz has disputed that the non-solicitation agreements at issue in the case are enforceable. The case, Neutron Holdings Inc v Hertz Corp et al, is being heard in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, with the case number 3:23-cv-00934.
