Lyft filed a lawsuit against its former COO Travis VanderZanden for allegedly stealing confidential documents before joining Uber.
Lyft is a privately held transportation network that connects passengers to drivers through its ride-sharing mobile app.
Lyft allegations
Lyft alleged that VanderZanden violated his confidentiality agreement with the company when he joined Uber. VanderZanden is currently serving as vice president of international growth at Uber.
According to the San Francisco based transportation network, a provision in the confidentiality agreement prohibits VanderZanden from joining a competitor without its written consent.
Lyft also alleged that VanderZanden uploaded the company’s documents to his Dropbox account before joining its competitor. The company acqui-hired VanderZanden’s on-demand car-wash start-up in March last year.
“VanderZanden’s possession of Lyft confidential information post-employment breached his Confidentiality Agreement. That agreement bars him from possessing, post-employment, any Lyft confidential and proprietary information, and prohibits him from using or disclosing such information to anyone,” said Lyft.
The company is accusing its former COO of transferring 98,000 files and folders to its Dropbox account before announcing his decision to leave the company. According to Lyft, some of the documents include information about its pre-quarter roadmap for 2024, a presentation regarding its growth until 2013 and financial forecast until 2016.
Lyft emphasized that VanderZanden left without notice negotiations with its co-founders Logan Green and John Zimmer. He also failed to return his laptop to the company on August 15, his last day of employment.
In addition, the company claimed that a forensic analysis of the laptop retrieved from VanderZanden showed misappropriation of the documents.
Furthermore, Lyft claimed that VanderZanden refused to sign a termination agreement and to return confidential documents.
Moreover, Lyft accused him for breaching an agreement that prohibits him from soliciting Lyft employees for one year after his resignation.
VanderZanden’s response
In response to the allegations, VanderZanden tweeted, “Lyft’s PR has lost it. The allegations in their complaint are ridiculous. Just to be crystal clear, I did not take any confidential data to Uber.”
“After leaving Lyft and before joining Uber, I realized they hadn’t revoked my invites, so I deleted all remaining files myself. All the facts will come out, but I wanted to clear up the mis-information and protect against this audacious attack on my reputation,” added VanderZanden.
