The Court of Appeal rejected the agent’s request of including the remuneration for accessory activities, such as stockage, freight, delivery and relevant administrative tasks, in the calculation of the termination indemnity since they were supposed to cover some specific expences that the agent had to bear during the contractual relationship, but were estinguished after the termination of the contract.
On April 5, 2005 the French Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Court of Appeal, stating that the abovementioned decision infringed the dispositions of the Commercial Code and, referring to Article L134-12, that entitles commercial agents to obtain an indemnity for the loss suffered after termination of contract.
The Court recognized the right of the Lebreton Bros. Company to obtain the inclusion of the compensations for accessory activities in the calculation of the amount of the termination indemnity.
