AGENCY AND DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENTS IN THE NETHERLANDS CARIBBEAN (II)
Distribution agreement
So-called agency agreements frequently bear resemblance in actual practice, to (certain aspects of) distribution agreements. Hence, so-called ‘agency agreements’ are in actual fact not infrequently mixed type agreements, consisting of an agent and a distribution element.
In general, a distributor buys goods from a principal in his own name and for his own account and resells these goods to third parties in his own name and for his own account.
Distribution agreements are not defined in any Netherlands Antilles statute and are not subject to any specific Netherlands Antilles legislation. The distribution agreement is an agreement sui generis, …
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AGENCY AND DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENTS IN THE NETHERLANDS CARIBBEAN (I)
Commercial Agency Agreement
According to Section 7:428, Paragraph 1, of the Netherlands Antilles Civil Code, a commercial agency contract (agentuurovereenkomst) is a contract for services whereby one party, the principal, instructs the other party, the commercial agent, and whereby the latter binds himself, for a fixed or indeterminate term and for remuneration, to act as an intermediary in the conclusion of contracts, and, as the case may be, to enter into such contracts in the name and for the account of the principal, without being his subordinate.
No procedural requirements apply for entering into an agency agreement, and it may …
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FRANCHISE AGREEMENTS UNDER THE LAWS OF ARUBA (II)
Case law regarding termination
It can be concluded from a Netherlands Antilles case regarding failed negotiations for the continuation of a license agreement (franchising) (Antillean Family Foods NV vs Mc Donald’s Corporation, Supreme Court, February 26, 1993, NJ 1993, 289), that under certain circumstances the termination of an agreement may constitute an obligation (to negotiate a renewal of contract or) to pay damages / compensation.
Possible areas of relevance are: the contents of the agreement and the circumstances under which the agreement was entered into; the amount invested by the franchisee and the extent to which the investment was recouped; …
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FRANCHISE AGREEMENTS UNDER THE LAWS OF ARUBA (I)
What are called ‘franchises’ are not seldom mixed type agreements
Franchise agreements are not defined in any Aruban statute and are not subject to any specific Aruban legislation. The franchise agreement is a sui generis agreement, subject to the general law of contracts. Distribution agreements are not subject to any specific Aruban legislation either, and are, as with franchise agreements, also subject to the general law of contracts.
In accordance with the general law of contracts, parties are free, in principle, to agree on whatever they wish. However, certain restrictions are imposed by the general principle of Aruban law that …
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