Any French contract law specialists out there? (specifically re NDA)

[duchesse]

I am a freelance translator and often work with agencies in continental Europe. I've been asked for the first time to sign a NDA which includes a clause specifically preventing me from poaching the agency's clients for the duration of the contract, but without specifying a duration.

If I sign it as it is, am I committing myself to an eternity of not poaching their clients, or signing a contract with them for evermore even if I never work for them again? I've no problem with the NDA, it's the lack of duration that is odd. What if I never work for them again and accidentally end up doing work for one of their clients whom I may know nothing of at a later date? Would I be in breach of contract?

I would ask for a time limit, separate to the duration of the contract. I would also ask for it to be limited to clients with whom you have had direct and material contact.

Agree without this, you could easily have issues. Don't know how enforceable such a clause would be - but you don't really want to find out!

I asked them for a specific duration, apparently (according to my contact's boss) no can do. Knowing how bullying the market is in Paris for translators and interpreters, I'm tempted not to sign the NDA and just not to work for them any more.

fedup, that is a another point! I have no contact with their clients- it seems unreasonable to slap such a clause on me at all. That's what the agency is there for! If their client is not happy with their work, I would hope that they would be free to go and engage a different agency or freelancers. I suspect they are not but that is their problem, frankly, not mine.