Honesty Obligation in Competitive Solicitation Communications
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/168#Honesty_Obligation_in_Competitive_Solicitation_Communications
Properties
Instance of
Applied to
Competitive solicitation communications with former clients
Balancing with
Free and Open Competition as Engineering Ethics Boundary Condition
Prohibition on Reputation Injury Through Competitive Critique
Concrete expression
Both Engineer A and Firm B's communications with former clients about each other's capabilities must satisfy the honesty obligation; casting doubt on a competitor's qualifications without factual basis violates the honesty principle as well as the disparagement prohibition
Confidence
0.85
Importance
medium
Interpretation
Honesty in professional representations extends to competitive solicitation contexts; engineers may not make false or misleading statements about competitor capability even when motivated by competitive self-interest
Invoked by
Engineer A Mutual Disparagement Competing Engineer
Firm B Engineers Mutual Disparagement Competing Engineer
Tension resolution
Honesty and the disparagement prohibition are mutually reinforcing; both require that competitive communications be factually grounded and not designed to create false impressions about competitor capability
Source Evidence
Source text
he was told by the clients that Firm B had cast doubt on the ability of A to provide quality services. In his discussions with the former clients Engineer A indicated doubt that Firm B was qualified to provide quality services.
Text references
In his discussions with the former clients Engineer A indicated doubt that Firm B was qualified to provide quality services.
he was told by the clients that Firm B had cast doubt on the ability of A to provide quality services.
TTL
@prefix case168: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/168#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case168:Honesty_Obligation_in_Competitive_Solicitation_Communications a proeth:Honesty,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Honesty Obligation in Competitive Solicitation Communications" ;
proeth:appliedto "Competitive solicitation communications with former clients" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Free and Open Competition as Engineering Ethics Boundary Condition",
"Prohibition on Reputation Injury Through Competitive Critique" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Both Engineer A and Firm B's communications with former clients about each other's capabilities must satisfy the honesty obligation; casting doubt on a competitor's qualifications without factual basis violates the honesty principle as well as the disparagement prohibition" ;
proeth:confidence "0.85" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "168" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "facts" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-02T02:40:40.104668+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "168" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-02T02:40:40.104668+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "medium" ;
proeth:interpretation "Honesty in professional representations extends to competitive solicitation contexts; engineers may not make false or misleading statements about competitor capability even when motivated by competitive self-interest" ;
proeth:invokedby "Engineer A Mutual Disparagement Competing Engineer",
"Firm B Engineers Mutual Disparagement Competing Engineer" ;
proeth:principleclass "Honesty" ;
proeth:sourcetext "he was told by the clients that Firm B had cast doubt on the ability of A to provide quality services. In his discussions with the former clients Engineer A indicated doubt that Firm B was qualified to provide quality services." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "Honesty and the disparagement prohibition are mutually reinforcing; both require that competitive communications be factually grounded and not designed to create false impressions about competitor capability" ;
proeth:textreferences "In his discussions with the former clients Engineer A indicated doubt that Firm B was qualified to provide quality services.",
"he was told by the clients that Firm B had cast doubt on the ability of A to provide quality services." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 168 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-02T02:59:28.922192"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 168 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
168
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
facts
First discovered
2026-03-02T02:40:40.104668+00:00
First case
168
Generated
2026-03-02T02:40:40.104668+00:00
Attributed to
Case 168 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-02T02:59:28.922192
Generated by
ProEthica Case 168 Extraction