Post-employment non-compete agreement (Germany)
Published byDocMuse
This document is in German
The PDF you download is in German — that is the language it has to be filed in, so it is not translated. Everything on this page is here to tell you what it says.
An agreement barring an employee in Germany from competing after the job ends, in German, under §§ 74 ff. of the German Commercial Code (HGB): the barred activities, the area, a length of at most two years and the compensation of at least half the last pay without which the ban is not binding. With the offset of other earnings, the duty to report them and the employer's waiver under § 75a HGB. Written form: print it, both sign by hand, and the employee is handed an original signed by the employer.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Employer
- Employer's registered address
- Employer's trade register number
- Person signing for the employer
- Employee
- Employee's address
- Length of the non-compete in months (at most 24)
- Territory
- What counts as competing
- Compensation as a percentage of the last pay (at least 50)
- City
- Date
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- Is a German post-employment non-compete valid without compensation?
- No. It is binding only if the employer undertakes to pay, for each year of the ban, at least half of the employee's last contractual pay (§ 74(2) HGB, applied to all employees by § 110 GewO). With no promise of compensation at all the ban is void; with too little it does not bind the employee. This document allows a higher percentage, but never less than half.
- How long may a German post-employment non-compete last?
- Two years at most from the end of the employment (§ 74a(1) HGB). It is also binding only as far as it protects a legitimate business interest of the employer and does not unfairly hamper the employee's career in place, time or subject. So describe the activities and the area as narrowly as the protection really needs — the customers or products at stake, say, rather than a whole industry.
- What form does a German post-employment non-compete need?
- Written form, and the employee must be given a document signed by the employer containing all the agreed terms (§ 74(1) HGB). So print the document, both sign it by hand, and hand the employee an original. An exchange by e-mail or scan is not enough; whether a qualified electronic signature suffices is disputed. The ban can be agreed in the employment contract or later, while the employment lasts.
- Can a German employer waive a post-employment non-compete?
- Yes, but only before the employment ends and in writing. The employee is then free at once, but the employer must keep paying the compensation until one year has passed since the waiver (§ 75a HGB). After the end, a one-sided waiver is no longer possible; only cancellation by agreement helps. When notice is given, the parties may free themselves from the ban on the conditions of § 75 HGB.
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
DocMuse sells documents, not legal advice. Acceptance always depends on the recipient's rules and your local law.
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