Is it legal in some countries to leave your job for the competition? I thought that's commonly outlawed in most countries.
Stealing planning documents is another thing but I am quite surprised that it's okay to leave your company and work for the competition two days later.
What a lot of companies attempt to do is put in anti-compete clauses in to the civil employment contract.
They are often unenforceable or if they are they are heavily time limited unless a large financial incentive is provided to balance the loss of earnings.
Of course that's OK. In Germany not only is it legal it is illegal to include clauses in an enmployment contract that forbid this (unless you get paid for the time in which you are not allowed to go to the competition).
I almost get a laugh whenever EU region people say that Americans are slaves to their jobs. Somehow they actually believe the BS that the EU labor laws are vastly superior for employees in every way.
What you're saying is true in many places in the EU. It's very sad.
Nearly all countries in EU will allow companies to aggressively pursue violators of no-hire and no-solicit clauses. Do you know of anywhere in the EU where the courts automatically reject those types of contract clauses?
Places with the simplest contract law tend to be the worst = whatever is on the contract is what happens. I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say.
Stealing planning documents is another thing but I am quite surprised that it's okay to leave your company and work for the competition two days later.