The following questions were put forward for discussion to member firms of LEXLINK – INTERNATIONAL LEGAL NETWORK, in maximum five hundred words, in the following jurisdictions (in alphabetic order):
| Argentina | (WSC Legal – Wiener Soto Caparrós https://www.wsclegal.com/) |
| Belgium | (D&L Advocaten http://www.dl-advocaten.be) |
| Brazil | (Rossetti Advogados http://rraa.com.br/) |
| Czech Republic | (SAMAK Legal, s.r.o. https://www.samak.cz/) |
| France | (LEXT Avocats https://lext.fr) |
| Germany | (Kutscher-Puis ǀ Legal https://www.kutscher-puis.com) |
| Italy | (CRELEX Studio Legale http://crelex.it) |
| Poland | (Kopeć Zaborowski Law Firm (KKZ) https://www.kkz.com.pl) |
| Portugal | (AFMA Sociedade de Advogados SPRL https://afma.pt/) |
| Slovakia | (JUDr. Andrej Terem, advokát https://terem.legal) |
| Switzerland | (Bühlmann Koenig & Partner http://bkp-legal.ch) |
| The Netherlands | (Certa Advocaten https://certa.nl/) |
| Uruguay | (Adders https://www.adders.com.uy) |
Commercial agency agreements in Argentina are expressly regulated by the Civil and Commercial Code (the “Civil and Commercial Code”), which sets out the principal rights and obligations of the parties. Within this framework, the parties are generally free to structure their commercial arrangements, subject to mandatory statutory provisions and public policy limitations.The statutory regime is…
Under Belgian law, commercial agency is governed by Title 1 of Book X of the Code of Economic Law (Articles X.1 – X.25 CEL), which implements Directive 86/653/EEC. Title 2 of Book X of the CEL concerns pre-contractual information in the context of commercial cooperation agreements. Initially, this title was intended to apply only to…
Commercial agency in Brazil is primarily governed by Law No. 4,886/1965, which specifically regulates independent commercial representatives and commercial representation agreements. In addition, Articles 710 to 721 of the Brazilian Civil Code (Law No. 10,406/2002) provide general rules on agency and distribution agreements. Although the statutes use different terminology (commercial representation under Law No. 4,886/1965…
The legal regulation of commercial agency is embedded in Act No. 89/2012 Coll., the Civil Code, as amended, (hereinafter as the “Civil Code”), specifically Sections 2483 to 2520 (§ 2483–2520). Czech regulation is fully harmonized with Council Directive 86/653/EEC of December 18, 1986 on the coordination of the laws of the Member States relating to…
Commercial agency in France is governed primarily by the French Commercial Code, Articles L.134 1 et seq. and R.134 1 et seq., which implement Directive 86/653/EEC. General rules of contract and representation under the French Civil Code apply insofar as they are compatible with this special statutory regime. A commercial agent is an agent who…
The core statutory regime is contained in sections 84–92c of the German Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch, hereinafter abbreviated to “HGB”). These provisions regulate, inter alia, the definition of a commercial agent (section 84 HGB), duties of agent and principal (sections 86, 86a HGB), commission (sections 87–87d HGB), termination (sections 89, 89a HGB) and, in particular, the…
Under Italian law, the main legal source of commercial agency is constituted primarily by Sections 1742 to 1753 of the Italian Civil Code (‘Codice Civile’), as modified by Legislative Decree n. 303 of 10 September 1991, which transposed into national law the European Directive 86/653/EEC on the coordination of the laws of the Member States…
Under Polish law, agency agreements are regulated primarily in the provisions of the Civil Code, in particular Articles 758-764⁹. These provisions set out, among other things, the definition of a commercial agent, the scope of the agent’s core duties towards the principal, as well as the rules governing remuneration, including the agent’s right to commission….
Decree-Law 178/86 of July 3, 1986, as amended by Decree-Law 118/93, of April 3, 1993 (implementing Directive 86/653/CEE). No. Goodwill compensation: upon termination of the agency agreement, the commercial agent is entitled to goodwill compensation only if the following requirements are jointly met: (i) The agreement is terminated for any cause other than agent´s breach….
In Slovakia, commercial agency is governed primarily by the Commercial Code (Act No. 513/1991 Coll.), especially the provisions on the commercial agency agreement in Article 652 and following. The Code defines the agent directly as an entrepreneur acting for the principal in relation to certain transactions, requires the agreement to be in writing, and regulates…
In Switzerland, the legal framework for commercial agency is primarily set out in statutory law. The main legal basis is the Swiss Code of Obligations (“CO”), in particular Articles 418a to 418v CO, which include specific rules on the agency contract (“Agenturvertrag”).In addition, the CO provides for supplementary application of other contractual regimes: the provisions…
Commercial agency in the Netherlands is primarily governed by articles 7:428-7:445 of the Dutch Civil Code (DCC), which implements the EU Commercial Agents Directive (86/653/EEC). These provisions are largely of mandatory law, particularly those aimed at protecting the commercial agent. Dutch case law further refines key concepts, such as the qualification of a “commercial agent”…
Uruguayan law does not contain a specific statute regulating commercial agency agreements. Instead, the legal framework derives mainly from general provisions governing commercial contracts. In particular, the relevant legal sources include the Commercial Code provisions on commercial contracts and obligations, as well as supplementary rules of the Civil Code relating to contractual capacity, validity, and…
