Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Account of profits definition

What does Account of profits mean? A court-ordered, gain-based remedy requiring the defendant to disclose and hand over net profits made from a wrong, rather than compensating the claimant’s loss. In practice it is most used for breaches of fiduciary duty (trustees, directors’ duties, partners and agents) and for breach of confidence/misuse of confidential information; it is also available for many intellectual property infringements, where statute permits an election between damages and an account of profits. The remedy is discretionary and non‑punitive. Only profits causally attributable to the breach are stripped, with equitable allowances or apportionment where appropriate for the defendant’s skill, effort or...

Account of profits in employee competition claims: when available, how calculated, interaction with damages, and practical strategy (England and Wales)

Published by a LexisNexis Employment expert

Practice notes

The remedies available in cases involving attempts to enforce post-termination restrictions

For ease, these can be split into:

interim remedies available before a final trial, and
remedies available after the case is finally tried

Interim remedies generally take the form of injunctions and associated orders, including:

Interim injunctions in employee competition claims and confidentiality claims
Springboard injunctions in employee competition claims
Delivery up orders in employee competition claims and confidentiality claims
Search orders and imaging orders in employee competition claims and confidentiality claims
Freezing orders in employee competition claims

Although courts often direct an expedited trial in employee competition disputes, many claims to enforce post-termination restrictions do not proceed to a final hearing. The key confrontation usually occurs at the interim stage, where the employer seeks, and the employee opposes, injunctive relief. After that initial contest—typically relatively swift and less costly in overall litigation terms—the parties rarely pursue the far more time-consuming and expensive route to a full trial, and instead reach a settlement...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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