Solicitation Deception Avoidance Obligation Applied to Firm B Client Contacts
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/168#Solicitation_Deception_Avoidance_Obligation_Applied_to_Firm_B_Client_Contacts
Properties
Instance of
SolicitationDeceptionAvoidanceObligation
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#SolicitationDeceptionAvoidanceObligation
Applied to
Solicitation communications with former clients of Firm A
Balancing with
Free and Open Competition as Engineering Ethics Boundary Condition
Honesty
Concrete expression
Firm B's communications with former clients that cast doubt on Engineer A's capability, if misleading or unsubstantiated, violate the obligation to avoid deceptive or misleading language in the solicitation of professional employment
Confidence
0.83
Importance
medium
Interpretation
The deception avoidance obligation applies not only to self-promotional claims but also to negative characterizations of competitors embedded in solicitation communications; misleading doubt-casting about a competitor's capability is a form of solicitation deception
Invoked by
Four Departing Engineers Firm B Principals
Tension resolution
Solicitation communications must be honest in both self-promotion and competitor characterization; the obligation is violated when competitor capability is misrepresented to induce client defection
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.
Text references
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:Solicitation_Deception_Avoidance_Obligation_Applied_to_Firm_B_Client_Contacts a proeth:SolicitationDeceptionAvoidanceObligation,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Solicitation Deception Avoidance Obligation Applied to Firm B Client Contacts" ;
proeth:appliedto "Solicitation communications with former clients of Firm A" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Free and Open Competition as Engineering Ethics Boundary Condition",
"Honesty" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Firm B's communications with former clients that cast doubt on Engineer A's capability, if misleading or unsubstantiated, violate the obligation to avoid deceptive or misleading language in the solicitation of professional employment" ;
proeth:confidence "0.83" ;
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 "The deception avoidance obligation applies not only to self-promotional claims but also to negative characterizations of competitors embedded in solicitation communications; misleading doubt-casting about a competitor's capability is a form of solicitation deception" ;
proeth:invokedby "Four Departing Engineers Firm B Principals" ;
proeth:principleclass "Solicitation Deception Avoidance Obligation" ;
proeth:sourcetext "he was told by the clients that Firm B had cast doubt on the ability of A to provide quality services." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "Solicitation communications must be honest in both self-promotion and competitor characterization; the obligation is violated when competitor capability is misrepresented to induce client defection" ;
proeth:textreferences "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 "2026-03-02T02:59:28.922344"^^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
2026-03-02T02:59:28.922344
Generated by
ProEthica Case 168 Extraction