DENMARK: Effective Termination of an Exclusive Distribution Agreement?

The Danish Maritime and Commercial Court recently rendered judgment on the effectiveness of a termination notice that did not comply with the contractual requirements for termination of an exclusive distribution agreement.   In 1988, a Danish supplier of vacuum cleaners entered into an exclusive distribution agreement with a Moroccan distributor for the distribution of certain […]

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CANADA: Saskatchewan introduces comprehensive franchise legislation.

Saskatchewan could soon become the seventh Canadian province to enact franchise legislation, joining Alberta, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Manitoba and British Columbia. The Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan introduced Bill 149, The Franchise Disclosure Act (the Saskatchewan bill), for first reading on November 9, 2023. If enacted, the Saskatchewan bill would serve as the province’s first […]

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AUSTRIA: Is the agent´s obligation to repay a “fixed fee” in the event of premature termination invalid? (OLG Graz, 14 April 2023).

A commercial agent received a monthly fixed fee/bonus linked to at least 5 years of work and the achievement of certain targets. After 3½ years, he wanted to terminate the contract and was then confronted with a reclaim. The contractual provisions A commercial agent for rental contracts for printers received a turnover-based commission. Furthermore, he […]

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EU: A recent decision of the EU Court of Justice on price fixing in distributorship contracts.

With decision of June 29, 2023 (in the proceeding C-211/22, Super Bock Bebidas SA, AN, BQ v. Autoridade de Concorrência), the European Court of Justice decided on the interpretation of the rules of Reg. No. 2790/1999 and No. 330/2010 on price fixing, in the context of an exclusive distributorship contract. The judgement is very interesting, […]

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SAUDI ARABIA: Draft new Saudi Commercial Transactions Law (“Commercial Code”).

Saudi Arabia continues to overhaul and modernise its legal system in (commercial) contract matters: Following the entry into force of the Commercial Franchise Regulations (Franchise Law) in 2019 (see IDI Newsletter November 2019), the Civil Transaction Regulations (Saudi Arabia’s first “Civil Code”) was enacted recently by Royal Decree M/191 of 29/11/1444H. (18 June 2023) and […]

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ITALY: Encroachment in franchising: the application of the good faith principle by Italian Courts.

Legal framework Pursuant to Article 3.4, c), of Law 129/2004 (the Italian law on franchising): “(..) The agreement must furthermore expressly indicate: (c)   the scope of the territorial exclusivity, if any, with respect to other franchisees or to channels and sales units directly managed by the franchisor;” The above provision (and particularly the indication “if […]

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URUGUAY: Goodwill indemnity in Uruguay and the impact of the new distribution platforms.

(i) General Remarks Distribution, as a business collaboration contract, has been defined, at least following the interpretation that has prevailed in Uruguay, as a contract between independent parties, each of which fulfills its respective activity without, in principle, a preeminence of one over the other party. A distributor, when he agrees to market the products […]

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NEW ZEALAND: The impact of data privacy in licensing.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world in early 2020 the licence industry was impacted just like anyone else.  However, licensing has contributed immensely to economic recovery by providing considerable growth in relation to new systems development and appointing new licensees in various industries. All parties collect a variety of information and in New Zealand […]

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UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Significant features of the New Agency Law in the UAE.

On 15 December 2022, the Government of the United Arab Emirates issued the Federal Law No. 3 of 2022 regulating commercial agencies (“New Agency Law”), which replaced the current commercial agency law at the time of this publication, the Federal Law 18 of 1981 (“Old Law”), after 41 years of application. The New Commercial Agencies […]

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FRANCE: Should suppliers fear the new class actions to come under French law? Possible new class actions not only from clients but also from distributors and business partners.

Class actions have existed in French law since the Hamon Law of 2014 (Law No. 2014-344 of 17 March 2014). They were originally limited to consumer law and competition law.  As such, a nationally representative and approved consumer protection association may bring an action before a civil court in order to obtain compensation for individual […]

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ARGENTINA: Comments on Court decisions including cases that impact Argentine franchise law.

Argentine franchise law is contained in 12 articles 1512-1524 of the CCYC. Labor law infringements constitute the bulk of the cases that we shall quote and deal with a specific provision or the laws declaring that (section 1520) there is no labor relationship between franchisor- franchisee since each party is an independent company, except if the law establish […]

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INDIA: Arbitration clauses in agreements which have not been duly stamped cannot be enforced. / Amendments to the Competition Act passed by Parliament.

Arbitration clauses in agreements which have not been duly stamped cannot be enforced. In April 2023, The Supreme Court of India held that when a document on which stamp duty is to be paid as per the Indian Stamp Act contains an arbitration clause and such document has not been duly stamped, it cannot be […]

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BELGIUM: Arbitration in disputes on the termination of exclusive distributor agreements with effect in Belgium.

In a landmark decision of April 7th, 2023, the Belgian Supreme Court (C.21.0325) has ruled that such disputes can be submitted to arbitration, disregarding the fact whether the arbitrator will apply Belgian law or not. By this decision the Court distanced itself from established case law. The Court came to that decision after applying the […]

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FRANCE: A new French law promoting a better balance in the relations between retail chains and their suppliers (The “EGalim 3” or “Descrozaille” law of 30 March 2023).

1. The EGalim laws take their name from the 2017 Etats Généraux de l’alimentation (French National Food Conference), which aimed to promote, in particular, fairer remuneration for producers. The “EGalim 1” law of 30 October 2018[1] and Ordinance No. 2019-359 of 24 April 2019 have resulted in an overhaul of Title IV of Book IV […]

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EU: Court of Justice 24-11-2022, Case C-574/21, QT V. 02 Czech Republic A.S. How are one-off commission payments to be considered in determining the amount of the goodwill indemnity?

Introduction. in this judgment the European Court of justice has dealt with a rather peculiar question arising in the context of the interpretation of Article 17 of Directive 86/653/EEC of 18 December 1986 on self-employed commercial agents, i.e. the impact of “one-off” commission payments on the deter-mination of the goodwill indemnity provided by such Article. […]

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