Accusing former employees of unfair competition and customer theft, Clinique Médicale Lacroix is suing the DermaGo clinic, its two doctors and four employees for a total of nearly $10 million.
As waiting lists for public dermatologists continue to grow, we must admit that private networks are now competing with each other.
Lacroix Medical Clinic has done good business by opening a dermatology clinic in June 2019. But last May, two of the doctors providing the service, Dr. Marc-André Doré and Dr. Émilie Bourgeault, for abandoning the ship.
Dr. Marc-André Doré Taken from the DermaGo Clinic Facebook page
Dr. Émilie Bourgeault From the Clinique DermaGo Facebook page
And they did it accompanied by two medical secretaries and two clinical nurses.
However, business appeared to be good as Lacroix Medical Clinic covered Dr. Doré estimated $1.2 million per year for four clinical days per week.
Despite everything, the group now finds itself at the DermaGo clinic, originally an online telemedicine service founded by the two doctors, which opened its first physical clinic in Saint-Augustin last September.
Alleged customer disloyalty
In its civil lawsuit filed with the Quebec court, Clinique Médicale Lacroix accuses the defendants of unfair competition.
According to the plaintiff’s allegations, his former partners took advantage of the popularity of his clinic network to steal clients from him, in particular through a newsletter sent directly to clients served by Clinique Médicale Lacroix.
The plaintiff accuses the two doctors of literally “subtilizing” the client list.
“Since all former employees work at the DermaGo Clinic, customers can easily be convinced that the DermaGo Clinic is the continuation of the Lacroix Medical Clinic and that it is actually just a name change,” we can read in the sequel.
Customer distraction is also alleged even before DermaGo opens a physical clinic. According to their former employees, the doctors and staff made referrals over a period of five years under the direction of Dr. Doré patients from the Clinique Médicale Lacroix to the DermaGo telemedicine service.
Lacroix also regrets that the doctors recruited “the entire staff of the clinic,” thereby “destroying” the possibility of maintaining its activities.
Almost 10 million dollars
Lacroix Medical Clinic is now seeking a total of $9.7 million from doctors Doré and Bourgeault and DermaGo. The sum covers the damage caused by the abuse of rights and the embezzlement of customers, the amounts lost by the dermatology clinic of the Lacroix network, the poaching of employees and the time lost by them for the benefit of the defendant.
As for the four former employees, the plaintiff is seeking amounts ranging from $58,000 to $77,000 for the salary they were paid while working for Lacroix for performing DermaGo-related duties, as well as for the alleged embezzlement from customers and the Loss of loyalty.
DermaGo executives were asked to respond, saying the plaintiffs’ claims would be “vigorously contested” but that their comments would be reserved for the court. Lawyers for Lacroix Medical Clinic declined to comment.
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