Ocado said today it has settled a legal dispute with its co-founder and a former employee after accusations they secured confidential documents from the online retail firm while they set up a competitor.

Ocado Group said Jonathan Faiman, who co-founded the business and exited in 2008, and Jon Hillary, one of its longest-serving employees before he was ousted in 2019, have “made a significant payment” to Ocado as part of the settlement.

Confidential documents

The FTSE 100 published an agreed statement of facts following the settlement which said that Hillary handed “a significant number of confidential documents belonging to Ocado” to Faiman while still working at Ocado.

The documents related to the operation of Ocado’s warehouses and details related to its joint venture with Marks & Spencer, which replaced its retail partnership with Waitrose last September.

It said that, at the time Ocado’s search order was served, Faiman was “on his way to a meeting with Waitrose with a significant number of these confidential documents in hard copy”.

A spokesman for Ocado declined to disclose the sum Faiman and Hillary paid but he did say “it is our duty to protect our people and their work from any unlawful and illegitimate use by third parties for their own ends.”