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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ARGENTINA: Relevant cases on franchising.

CTL S.A VS MATIAS CASTILLO vs CASANUOVA S.A. AND OTHERS C on / bankruptcy -march 22 1918-. Summary: Mr Castillo was labor creditor from Casanuova franchisee and he requested the extension of bankruptcy on the basis of patrimonial confusion under law 24.522 (a, 161) between CTL the bankrupted and restaurant partners A,A franchisors, plus the two  other franchisees […]

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FRANCE: The French Court of Cassation has upheld almost in full the judgment of the Court of Appeal regarding the distribution of mobile telephone services by Orange in the French overseas territories (Full approval on damages of EUR 181.5 million in principal, part of appeal overturned limited to the starting date of the interest).

The judgment on the principal award obtained before the Paris Court of Appeal, which constitutes one of the largest damages cases ever tried in France, is now final. The Court of Cassation’s ruling is very important for private enforcement law as it has clarified several key legal issues in relation to damages for anticompetitive practices. […]

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ITALY: The Italian Antitrust Authority re-balances contractual clauses in franchise agreements.

On January 31st, 2023 the Italian Antitrust Authority (“Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato” – “AGCM”) formally closed a proceeding against Benetton on abuse of economic dependence. The proceedings arose from a complaint by a former franchisee who operated two Benetton shops, which complained of having suffered an abuse of economic dependence, which allegedly […]

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SWITZERLAND: “Lex Booking” – the new Article 8a UCA as the first GTC content control in B2B-settings.

On 1 December 2022, a new Article 8a of the Swiss Federal Act on Unfair Competition (UCA) entered into force. This so-called “Lex Booking” provision aims to improve the market position of accommodation providers vis-à-vis online booking platforms by prohibiting parity clauses regarding price, availability or conditions in contracts between booking platforms and accommodation providers. […]

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CHINA: Are constraints on “relatively advantaged positions” coming to Chinese contracts?

The 国家市场监督管理总局 – State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”) in China has released a draft Amendments to the 反不正当竞争法 – Anti-Unfair Competition Law (hereinafter the “Draft”) on November 22, 2022. The Draft, amongst other things, proposed the addition of the “相对优势地位” or “relatively advantaged position” concept and the relevant factors for determining this position. This […]

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FRANCE: French agency case law overturned and aligned with EU case law: a principal can no longer rely on a serious breach discovered after the termination to deprive the agent of the benefit of the termination indemnity (Comment of the decision of the French Cour de cassation, Commercial Chamber, 16 November 2022, LawLex202200009995JBJ).

In this case, a principal accused his agent of having engaged in the representation of a competitor in parallel with his mandate. The agent argued that this activity had been known to the principal for many years. However, several years after the beginning of their collaboration, the principal amended the contract to prohibit the agent […]

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EU: Judgement of the Court of Justice of 13 October 2022, on the sub-agent’s right to goodwill indemnity.

With decision of October 13, 2022 (in the proceeding C-593/21, NY v. Herios Sarl) the European Court of Justice decided on the right of a sub-agent to receive the goodwill indemnity from its principal, in a case where the sub-agent, after the end of the contract with its principal, continued to represent the same customers […]

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FRANCE: Selective distribution: the Paris Court of Appeal does not consider the conditions of resale of sports shoes, covered by a selective distribution agreement, by a discount chain to be devaluing (Paris court of appeal, 19 October 2022).

On 19 October 2022, the Paris Court of Appeal ruled on a case concerning the conditions of resale of products covered by selective distribution in a discount retail chain. The head of a sports and leisure goods network accused the chain of having sold its products as part of a promotional operation during which it […]

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POLAND: Poland’s Supreme Court once again confirmed that the Polish pension authority (Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych) has the right to assess the nature of the contracts concluded, regardless of what the parties called them (judgment of December 10, 2020, III UK 402/19).

The judgment was issued in a dispute as to whether, in connection with the conclusion between an entrepreneur and a person performing services for him of a contract bearing the title: “work contract”, it was necessary for the entrepreneur to pay social security contributions. In Poland, not all contracts under which an individual who is […]

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