Is a vendor of a business entitled to set up a business in competition to the purchaser?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Unisource Canada Inc. v. Enterprise Paper Co. Ltd., 1999 CanLII 6553 (BC SC):

The defendants' position is that even Trego v. Hunt recognized that (absent a reasonable restrictive covenant providing otherwise) a vendor of a business is entitled to set up a business in competition to the purchaser and the extent of his obligation implied or imposed by law not to depreciate the goodwill he has sold will depend very much on the surrounding circumstances. In any event, the principle "expressum facit cessare tacitum" must be borne in mind, that is, that an express provision in an agreement will exclude obligations that would otherwise arise by implication of law relating to the same subject matter. In this regard the non-competition covenant in paragraph 10 of the agreement, which includes references to solicitation of customers and hiring of ex-employees, and the "entire agreement" provision of paragraph 11(b) are relied upon.

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