A court has to decide that. The employer likely has more resources than you and can tie you up wasting time and money in proceedings. That is the real issue behind this article. This company decided it was in their best interests to make an example of this person, and now she's unemployed.
What's a company going to do? Sue me? Chances are they won't even know if I'm working at another company, as I can just choose to not update my LinkedIn.
Companies can do stuff like this to a few, limited , number of people. But anybody can get under the radar extremely easily, if they so choose.
