Toast Emboldened Its Advisory Board to Steal Secrets, Suit Says

Toast Inc. misappropriated a former business partner’s trade secrets—and used them to launch a competing service—in part by encouraging members of its customer advisory board to breach confidentiality agreements, a new federal lawsuit said.

The restaurant point-of-sale and business-management platform was “willfully blind” to the unauthorized use of secret information by its advisory board members—including an executive at Washington, DC-area restaurant chain Busboys and Poets—Gratuity Solutions LLC and Gratuity LLC said in a complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Through Joy Zarembka’s activities as both a member of Toast’s board and an ...