New laws and regulations regularly change the rules applicable to your distribution contract.
For example, every 10 years, a European exemption regulation sets out the rules that allow a clause to be considered lawful although it restricts competition in a distribution contract (territorial, customer, supply, activity, non-competition, etc.).
Judges interpret them daily and give readings that sometimes change the solution.
For example, the judges of the Commercial Chamber of the Court of Cassation considered in June 2024 that the activities of a real estate agency were a “retail store” within the meaning of Article L. 341-1 of the Commercial Code. This reversal of case law has had the consequence of making the post-contractual non-competition clauses in service franchise contracts (and licence, affiliation commission in particular) illegal if they were not limited to business premises.
These changes are permanent and require regular maintenance of your distribution contracts.
In addition, your practice in the organization and management of your network evolves over time, as well as innovations (technological, financial, marketing or commercial for example) justifies adding or modifying certain clauses: internet clauses did not exist twenty years ago, social network clauses or customer reviews are even more recent for example.
Method for updating your distribution contract
To update your distribution contract:
- we use this material for the “technical” update resulting from the evolution of the law in force and its interpretation by the courts;
- we take stock beforehand with you of your practice of this contract to determine its desirable developments.
Gouache Avocats follows the news of distribution law on a daily basis: we publish two newsletters per month on this subject, write annually an authoritative summary column for the magazine “Contrat, Concurrence, Consommation” (LexisNexis Editions) and organize a highly followed annual webinar on this topic.
An up-to-date distribution contract for all legislative, regulatory and jurisprudential developments
Your contract remains, year after year, efficient and allows you to effectively manage your production network.
