[US] Rippling sues Deel alleging corporate espionage

In a lawsuit filed today (March 17) in the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division, the HR provider Rippling has sued its competitor Deel for corporate espionage, The New York Times reports.

In the complaint, Rippling alleges that Deel hired a mole in its Dublin office to uncover Rippling’s trade secrets and access its highest ranks.

A Rippling Team blog post states that Rippling uncovered the defector through a “honeypot” trap; a dedicated Slack channel for the ruse which was allegedly mentioned in a letter to top Deel executives.

Vanessa Wu - Rippling’s general counsel - reportedly said in a statement, “We’re all for healthy competition, but we won’t tolerate when a competitor breaks the law.” 

Per The New York Times’ reporting, a Deel spokeswoman said, “Weeks after Rippling is accused of violating sanctions law in Russia and seeding falsehoods about Deel, Rippling is trying to shift the narrative with these sensationalized claims. We deny all legal wrongdoing and look forward to asserting our counterclaims.”

In the lawsuit, Rippling alleges that the employee it had accused of being a plant (referred to in the complaint as D.S.) began to increasingly search for mentions of Deel in its Slack messaging system from November 2024. Rippling asserts that the intention was to find information related to sales leads involving Deel customers, pitch decks and more.

Rippling reportedly said it started to suspect a mole when Deel tried to hire at least 17 members of its global payroll operations team via WhatsApp; a service which requires individual phone numbers. And when a reporter for The Information requested a comment about internal Slack messages relating to payments to Russia in violation of sanctions. A security review revealed that D.S. had searched for those messages.

Additionally, Rippling claims it discovered correspondence between D.S. and Alex Bouaziz, Deel’s CEO and co-founder.

Earlier this month, Ms Wu sent a letter to three people, including Philippe Bouaziz, Deel’s chairman and CFO ( father of Alex Bouaziz). The letter reportedly referenced a Slack channel which Ms Wu implied had embarrassing information about Deel. However, it was actually set up as part of the trap.

According to The New York Times, Rippling says it obtained a court order last week forcing D.S. to turn over his phone. But when a court-appointed lawyer attended Rippling’s Dublin office and demanded that the employee hand over the device, D.S. locked himself in a bathroom and later fled the scene.

Rippling’s complaint reads, “This was not an isolated act of misconduct — it was a deliberate attack, perpetrated for over four months, designed to steal and weaponize critical competitive data.” 

Source: The New York Times

(Links and quotes via original reporting)

In a lawsuit filed today (March 17) in the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division, the HR provider Rippling has sued its competitor Deel for corporate espionage, The New York Times reports.

In the complaint, Rippling alleges that Deel hired a mole in its Dublin office to uncover Rippling’s trade secrets and access its highest ranks.

A Rippling Team blog post states that Rippling uncovered the defector through a “honeypot” trap; a dedicated Slack channel for the ruse which was allegedly mentioned in a letter to top Deel executives.

Vanessa Wu - Rippling’s general counsel - reportedly said in a statement, “We’re all for healthy competition, but we won’t tolerate when a competitor breaks the law.” 

Per The New York Times’ reporting, a Deel spokeswoman said, “Weeks after Rippling is accused of violating sanctions law in Russia and seeding falsehoods about Deel, Rippling is trying to shift the narrative with these sensationalized claims. We deny all legal wrongdoing and look forward to asserting our counterclaims.”

In the lawsuit, Rippling alleges that the employee it had accused of being a plant (referred to in the complaint as D.S.) began to increasingly search for mentions of Deel in its Slack messaging system from November 2024. Rippling asserts that the intention was to find information related to sales leads involving Deel customers, pitch decks and more.

Rippling reportedly said it started to suspect a mole when Deel tried to hire at least 17 members of its global payroll operations team via WhatsApp; a service which requires individual phone numbers. And when a reporter for The Information requested a comment about internal Slack messages relating to payments to Russia in violation of sanctions. A security review revealed that D.S. had searched for those messages.

Additionally, Rippling claims it discovered correspondence between D.S. and Alex Bouaziz, Deel’s CEO and co-founder.

Earlier this month, Ms Wu sent a letter to three people, including Philippe Bouaziz, Deel’s chairman and CFO ( father of Alex Bouaziz). The letter reportedly referenced a Slack channel which Ms Wu implied had embarrassing information about Deel. However, it was actually set up as part of the trap.

According to The New York Times, Rippling says it obtained a court order last week forcing D.S. to turn over his phone. But when a court-appointed lawyer attended Rippling’s Dublin office and demanded that the employee hand over the device, D.S. locked himself in a bathroom and later fled the scene.

Rippling’s complaint reads, “This was not an isolated act of misconduct — it was a deliberate attack, perpetrated for over four months, designed to steal and weaponize critical competitive data.” 

Source: The New York Times

(Links and quotes via original reporting)