E-commerce fashion and beauty platform Nykaa has filed a suit against ex chief business officer Gopal Asthana for breaching confidentiality and misusing data belonging to the brand, which could cause harm to the company. Asthana is now heading Tata Cliq, the fashion e-commerce platform at Tata.
As per Economic Times, Gopal Asthana reportedly contacted several Nykaa employees who worked under him when he was there to join Tata Cliq. Some of these employees reportedly joined Tata Cliq last year. Nykaa is learnt to have argued in its petition before the Bombay High Court that it has sufficient compensation for the former CBO, including long-term incentives and stock options. The report added the company has demanded a refund of ₹19 crore as employee stock options and ₹5 crore for loss of goodwill and other business measures.
Gopal spent four years as Nykaa’s chief business officer and a member of its board. Nykaa has said Gopal, because of his role, was privy to confidential and private company information. Gopal quoted, “The allegations are incorrect, and they will get established in the arbitration. However, since the matter is sub-judice, I can’t comment on the same. The matter is between my former employer and me, and my current employer is not a party in the matter and hence best left out of the discussion.”
Though Nykaa nor Tata Cliq has commented on the matter. Gopal joined Tata Cliq in 2023. Its competitors in this space include Nykaa, Tata Cliq, Amazon Fashion, Ajio and Tira from Reliance, and Flipkart’s Myntra.