The status of commercial agent is provided for by articles L. 134-1 and seq. and R. 134-1 and seq. of the French Commercial Code.
These articles provide for certain rights and obligations of the commercial agent, among which, the right to receive an indemnity on termination of the agency agreement with the principal.
The applicable French legislation (articles L. 134-1 and seq. and R. 134-1 and seq. of the French Commercial Code) results from French Law 91-593 of June 25, 1991, which transposes European Council Directive 86/653 of December 18, 1986, on the coordination of the laws of the Member States of the European Union relating to self-employed commercial agents.
According to the Court of Justice of the European Union, the provisions of the Directive relating to the agent’s rights on termination of the contract and they must be applied whenever the situation has a close link with the European Union, in particular when the agent carries out his activity on the territory of a Member State, irrespective of the law to which the parties intended the contract to be subject (Court of Justice of the European Union, case 381/98).
The provisions of the Directive do not therefore need to be applied if the agent works outside the European Union, as they only concern domestic public policy.
When a contract is concluded between parties who are nationals of different EU Member States, the law of the Member State which complies with the minimum protection prescribed by the Directive and which has been chosen by the parties to govern the contract may be set aside by the judge in favor of the mandatory rules of the law of his or her country, provided that the latter grants more favorable protection to the agent (Court of Justice of the European Union decision dated 17 October 2013, case 184/12).
