Break-up of a relationship

Your supplier:

is
• no longer competitive enough;
•  does not have an offer that remains in line with your needs;

poorly

• performs its obligations: delays, incomplete deliveries, defective products, etc.

You wish to terminate your contractual relationship. Caution, danger.

You can always break off a business relationship, but breaking it off abruptly engages the responsibility of the one who is at the origin of the break. 

Freedom of trade means being able to choose your suppliers and therefore whether or not to remain a customer of a supplier. 

To lawfully terminate a business relationship, it is necessary to:
 

• Buyer and reseller of your products; 

 

• d’organisation de votre réseau de distribution. 

Failing to comply with this notice, Article L. 442-1 of the Commercial Code incriminates the sudden termination of an established commercial relationship. However, this notice does not have to be respected if the supplier or the customer has committed serious misconduct (e.g.: failure to deliver goods sold, non-payment of the price). This serious misconduct cannot be defined by a contract and is assessed restrictively by the judge. 

The risk is financially very heavy: if your supplier has not obtained sufficient notice, he is entitled to obtain that you pay him, as damages, the equivalent of the gross margin (on variable costs) that he should have made with you during the period of notice from which he did not benefit (mainly, but other compensation is possible).

This litigation is frequent. It can arise from a total break in the commercial relationship, but also from a simple partial break (decrease in the volume of orders). It exists even in the absence of a written contract between the supplier or the customer.

Conversely, you are a supplier and a customer leaves you without notice, what are your rights? How can I be compensated?

It is therefore necessary to carefully prepare a break in a commercial relationship to know how to break it, and if you are a victim, to know if you can be compensated in order to act quickly.
 

A tailor-made intervention by Gouache Avocats for the sudden termination of your commercial relationship

If Gouache Avocats intervenes before the termination of the commercial relationship, we allow you to manage the termination as quickly as possible, in compliance with the rules of restrictive practices of competition, and in consideration of your economic interests and your risks.

If Gouache Avocats intervenes downstream of the termination decision, our intervention will allow you, depending on whether you are the author or the victim of the sudden termination of the established commercial relationship, to reduce or maximize the compensation. Our intervention may consist in negotiating a settlement or a judicial settlement of the difficulty if no amicable solution could be found.