Companies have been and are still under an urgent need to understand, for example, whether and to what extent any breach or delay in fulfilling their contractual obligations could be considered justified by the circumstances and by possible Government restrictions imposed on them as a result of the pandemic; by way of contrast, they need to know whether the “force majeure” possibly invoked by their counterparts could justify a suspension of performance or the unilateral imposition of new deadlines or cancellation of purchase orders by them.
In order to better support all companies and lawyers involved in international distribution, IDI has drafted a Q&A Paper, dealing with the most frequently asked questions concerning the impact of COVID-19 on distribution/supply, franchising and agency contracts.
The Q&A Paper currently includes the answers provided by IDI Country Experts of the following countries:
However, the Q&A Paper will be available as of today in the special reports section (https://www.idiproject.com/documents/reports?country=Italy) and will be constantly updated, also with the addition of the contributions for further countries.
Silvia Bortolotti, IDI Secretary General
LIST OF AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS
Paper framework drafted by the Members of the IDI Board:
Fabio Bortolotti (Chair IDI, IDI country expert for Italy)
Silvia Bortolotti (Secretary General IDI, IDI country expert for Italy)
Ignacio Alonso (IDI agency and distribution expert for Spain)
Marco Hero (IDI country expert for franchising in Germany)
Petr Mrazek (Country Experts’ representative; IDI country expert for agency and distribution in Czech Republic)
Federico Rizzo (IDI Members’ representative; in-house counsel for Diadora)
Jaap Van Till (IDI agency and distribution expert for Netherlands)
Contributors:
AUSTRIA: Daniel Liemberger (IDI franchising expert for Austria)
AUSTRIA: Gustav Breiter (IDI agency & distribution expert for Austria)
BELGIUM: Nicole Van Crombrugghe (IDI agency & distribution expert for Belgium)
BELGIUM: Pascal Hollander (IDI franchising expert for Belgium)
CHINA: Paul Jones (IDI franchising expert for China)
COLOMBIA: Gabriela Mancero (IDI agency & distribution expert for Colombia)
COLOMBIA: Juan Carlos Uribe (IDI franchising expert for Colombia)
CROATIA: Daniela Bastianic (IDI agency & distribution expert for Croatia)
DENMARK: Jacob Orskov Rasmussen (IDI franchising expert for Denmark)
DENMARK: Peter Gregersen (IDI agency & distribution expert for Denmark)
EGYPT: Maged Ackad (IDI expert for Egypt)
FINLAND: Lauri Railas (IDI agency & distribution expert for Finland)
FINLAND: Patrick Lindgren (IDI franchising expert for Finland)
FRANCE: Frédéric Fournier (IDI agency expert for France)
GERMANY: Burghard Piltz (IDI distribution expert for Germany)
GERMANY: Raimond Emde (IDI agency expert for Germany)
ISRAEL: Itamar Anaby (IDI agency & distribution expert for Israel)
MEXICO: Eduardo Kleinberg (IDI franchising expert for Mexico)
MOROCCO: Nadia El Baroudi-Kostrikis (IDI expert for Morocco)
MOZAMBIQUE: Fabricia De Almeida Henriques (IDI agency & distribution expert for Mozambique)
NEW ZEALAND: Stewart Germann (IDI agency & distribution expert for New Zealand)
NORWAY: Carl Christiansen (IDI agency & distribution expert for Norway)
NORWAY: Karl-Anders Gronland (IDI franchising expert for Norway)
PAKISTAN: Khalid A. Rehman (IDI agency & distribution expert for Pakistan)
POLAND: Magdalena Kowalczuk-Szymanska (IDI franchising expert for Poland)
POLAND: Olga Sztejnert-Roszak (IDI agency & distribution expert for Poland)
PORTUGAL: Claudia Santos Cruz (IDI franchising expert for Portugal)
ROMANIA: Cristina Tararache (IDI agency & distribution expert for Romania)
RUSSIA: Maria Ostashenko (IDI agency & distribution expert for Russia)
RUSSIA: Sergey Medvedev (IDI franchising expert for Russia)
SAUDI ARABIA: Stephan Jager (IDI agency & distribution expert for Saudi Arabia)
SLOVENIA: Maja Subic (IDI agency & distribution expert for Slovenia)
SPAIN: Mercedes Clavell (IDI franchising expert for Spain)
SWEDEN: Anders Thylin (IDI franchising expert for Sweden)
SWEDEN: Magnus Nedström (IDI agency & distribution expert for Sweden)
SWITZERLAND: Andreas M. Dubler (IDI franchising expert for Switzerland)
SWITZERLAND: Patrick Rohn (IDI agency & distribution expert for Switzerland)
THE NETHERLANDS: Tessa De Monnink (IDI franchising expert for Netherlands)
TURKEY: Halil Ercument Erdem (IDI agency & distribution expert for Turkey)
TURKEY: Hikmet Koyuncuoglu (IDI franchising expert for Turkey)
UK: John Pratt (IDI franchising expert for UK)
UK: Sakil Suleman (IDI agency & distribution expert for UK)
URUGUAY: Hector Ferreira (IDI agency & distribution expert for Uruguay)
