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 arbitration clause is a contractual clause by which the parties, from its signing and prior to any dispute, agree that any disputes that may arise out of the contract, or certain of them, shall be subject to arbitration proceedings. Where the issue, which is the object of the dispute, arose before the inclusion of the arbitration clause, that issue cannot be included as part of the dispute .
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Arbitration clause.

The arbitration clause is a contractual clause by which the parties, from its signing and prior to any dispute, agree that any disputes that may arise out of the contract, or certain of them, shall be subject to arbitration proceedings. Where the issue, which is the object of the dispute, arose before the inclusion of the arbitration clause, that issue cannot be included as part of the dispute .

The arbitration clause contained in a franchise agreement cannot be enforced against a liquidator who brings a liability action for undue support against the franchisor in the creditors' interest  or an action for annulment of acts carried out during the “suspect period”  (i.e. the period which runs from the date on which the debtor ceases payments). It also cannot be enforced against the interim relief judge in proceedings brought on the basis of Article 873 of the Code of Civil Procedure to put an end to a manifestly unlawful disturbance .

It has been held that the object of the eight specialized jurisdictions to hear cases under Article L. 442-4 of the Commercial Code, and in particular the numerous disputes related to the termination of established of commercial relations, is merely to adapt judicial competence and procedures to the technicality of litigation for anticompetitive practices, and the fact that the Minister of the Economy and the Public Prosecutor have in this context an autonomous right of action for the purposes of the protection of competition and the market does not have the effect of excluding recourse to arbitration to settle disputes between economic operators arising from the application of Article L. 442-1 et seq. of the Commercial Code. Accordingly, arbitrators can hear actions for terminations of established commercial relations under an arbitration clause without this type of litigation being reserved to the French courts . Further, a franchisee may not, in order to avoid the application of an arbitration clause, seek to rely on the significant imbalance arising from the general structure of the franchise agreement, due to the autonomy of such a clause from the contract containing it . Moreover, an arbitration clause is not imbalanced merely because it appoints a New York arbitrator insofar as the proceedings were able to be conducted in writing without counsel having to travel and the cost to the defendant was limited to less than 3,000 US dollars .

Cass. com., 19 November 2002, LawLex200200006253JBJ, quashing CA Angers, 7 July 1998, LawLex200200006315JBJ, which had considered that the arbitration clause was applicable to all disputes to which the contract could give rise.

Cass. com., 14 January 2004, LawLex200400000137JBJ: a liquidator who brings proceedings for liability in the creditors' interest against the franchisor for undue support given to the franchised company cannot claim application of the arbitration clause provided for in the franchise agreement, upholding CA Amiens, 29 March 2002, LawLex200400000442JBJ.

Cass. com., 17 November 2015, No 14-16-012.

Cass. com., 23 April 2003, LawLex200300001468JBJ. 

Cass. 1re  civ., 21 October 2015, LawLex201500001349JBJ.

CA Paris, 11 September 2018, LawLex201800001330JBJ; 21 May 2019, LawLex201900000713JBJ.

CA Paris, 11 September 2018, LawLex201800001330JBJ, cited above

French Distribution Law

438. Arbitration clause.

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

438. Arbitration clause.

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

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