This book provides a wide-ranging review of the European rules relating to distribution: exclusive purchase and exclusive supply, exclusive and selective distribution, motor vehicle distribution, franchises, commercial agents.

French Distribution Law

The jurisdiction of the interim applications judge has given rise to a rather extensive body of case law. Only able to rule on matters as they appear at first sight, the interim applications judge (summary court) was not always recognized as competent to rule on the validity of a selective distribution system. Although the Court of Cassation has established its jurisdiction , the trial courts are  …

Imminent damage or manifestly unlawful disturbance.

The jurisdiction of the interim applications judge has given rise to a rather extensive body of case law. Only able to rule on matters as they appear at first sight, the interim applications judge (summary court) was not always recognized as competent to rule on the validity of a selective distribution system. Although the Court of Cassation has established its jurisdiction , the trial courts are not unanimous on it . 

The interim applications judge has jurisdiction to rule on the existence of an imminent damage or a manifestly unlawful disturbance referred to it by the developer of a distribution network . In effect, the selling, by an authorized third party of products covered by a selective distribution network which is not manifestly unlawful  or which is manifestly lawful, constitutes an unlawful disturbance the cessation of which may be ordered by the interim relief judge . However, the interim applications court's investigations regarding the lawfulness of network may only be brief: it may rule only from the contract elements submitted by the parties . It must therefore confine itself to a prima facie assessment of the lawfulness of network. The assessment of the lawfulness of a selective distribution network will therefore exceed the jurisdiction of the interim applications court where it requires a complex analysis . The court must take a position from the day it issues its ruling to assess the imminence of the damage or the manifest unlawfulness of the claimed disturbance .

A manufacturer may thus apply to the interim relief judge for an order that a non-authorized distributor stop all sales on an internet sales site . Article 145 of the Code of Civil Procedure also authorizes the supplier, independently of any manifestly unlawful disturbance, to refer the matter to the interim applications judge for it to order the parallel distributor to disclose its invoices . The interim court can however only include a coercive fine with this measure if the existence of evidence the disclosure of which has been ordered, is at least in all probability, established .

Cass. com., 27 October 1992, LawLex200200001700JBJ; Cass. com., 24 November 1992, LawLex200200005955JBJ. See also Cass. com., 18 April 1989, LawLex201000000504JBJ: the court cannot refrain from assessing the lawfulness of a selective distribution network, whose evidence is on the manufacturer, where it rules on the existence of an unlawful disturbance.

T. com. Pontoise, 15 April 1999, LawLex200200005202JBJ. See, also, CA Dijon, 19 September 1989, LawLex200200001900JBJ and LawLex200200001902JBJ; CA Dijon, 16 October 1990, LawLex200200001850JBJ; 13 November 1990, LawLex200200004805JBJ.

CA Paris, 31 January 2001, LawLex200200004804JBJ.

CA Aix-en-Provence, 11 October 2012, LawLex201200002183JBJ.

CA Paris, 25 March 2014, LawLex201400001777JBJ.

Cass. com., 13 December 1988, LawLex200200001916JBJ; 31 January 1989, LawLex201000000502JBJ.

Cass. com., 24 November 1992, LawLex200200005955JBJ.

CA Dijon, 16 October 1990, LawLex200200005803JBJ.

CA Versailles, 2 December 1999, LawLex200200005259JBJ; T. com. Nanterre, 4 October 2000, LawLex200200003266JBJ, T. com. Paris, 26 July 2007, LawLex200700001887JBJ; T. com. Paris, 31 October 2007, LawLex200700001916JBJ; CA Aix-en-Provence, 11 October 2012, LawLex201200002183JBJ, finding for the jurisdiction of the court hearing applications for interim relief to prohibit the sale on the internet of dermocosmetic products when the unlawfulness of the network is not clear in the absence of any legal decision in that regard; CA Paris, 2 November 2017, LawLex201700001772JBJ; 27 January 2023, LawLex202300001711JBJ.

See, inter alia, CA Aix-en-Provence, 6 December 1991. 

French Distribution Law

215. Imminent damage or manifestly unlawful disturbance.

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215. Imminent damage or manifestly unlawful disturbance.

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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