Watch now: agentlaw seminar

Our annual agentlaw seminar was held on Wednesday, 10 November 2021.

In this year’s seminar we discussed:

• Failure to reach sales targets? How terminated agents may be able to strike back at their principals.

It is common for agency agreement to include sales targets. The intention is to ensure performance of the agent and allow the principal to end the agency agreement if the target is not reached. But can an agent terminated for failure to achieve a target claim against the principal?

• Minimum purchase requirements – can suppliers squeeze out underperforming distributors? If so, what is the best way of doing so?

If a distributor is not buying, the supplier is not making sales. So how best can a supplier end its agreement with an underperforming distributor?

• Do not destroy – the extent of disclosure in litigation and how agency and distribution agreement disputes can be won or lost.

English law requires that in litigation both claimant and defendant produce all documents relevant to the dispute – and whether good or bad for their respective arguments. So how best to use disclosure when fighting an agency or distributorship dispute? And also does this mean you should destroy unhelpful documents before commencing litigation?

• Controlling sales by distributors, dual pricing and other changes – what’s in store for 2022?

Many suppliers want to control how distributors resell. But their ability to control is restricted. But the law it is a-changin’. We discuss what suppliers and distributors can expect in 2022.

The seminar was chaired by Steve Sidkin, partner and head of the agentlaw team at Fox Williams.