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

Article L. 1233-3 of the Labor Code defines redundancy (licenciement économique) as a dismissal “carried out by an employer for one or several reasons non-inherent in the person of the employee and giving rise to a suppression or modification of employment or substantial change in the contract of employment, resulting notably from economic difficulties or technological developments”. Case law, bas …

Conditions.

Article L. 1233-3 of the Labor Code defines redundancy (licenciement économique) as a dismissal “carried out by an employer for one or several reasons non-inherent in the person of the employee and giving rise to a suppression or modification of employment or substantial change in the contract of employment, resulting notably from economic difficulties or technological developments”. Case law, basing itself on the use of the adverb “notably”, interprets that provision as making it possible to terminate the contract of employment in order to reorganize the undertaking where that reorganization is indispensable to protect its competitiveness , or, where the undertaking belongs to an international group, the competitiveness of that group . Thus, the dismissal of a sales representative has an economic cause where it falls within the context of staff reorganization measures aimed at protecting the competitiveness of the undertaking .

On the other hand, the following cases do not constitute redundancy: the termination of the employment contract of a sales representative having refused to forego his status as an executive insofar as the only aim of the measure is to increase profits , or a sales representative acting for several undertakings who has refused to become an exclusive sales representative on a less extended geographic sector, with a view to a better profitability and economic efficiency , the dismissal of a sales representative followed by the circulation by the employer of a job vacancy indicating that the undertaking is expanding  or a sales representative who refuses the change in his remuneration, where it is justified neither by economic difficulties, technological developments, nor by the need to protect the competitiveness of the undertaking  or who objects to the change in his contract of employment where it has no purpose other than enabling the employer to align his salary with that of other employees of the purchaser of the undertaking .

Cass. soc., 30 September 1997, LawLex200200006047JBJ.

Cass. soc., 28 April 2011, LawLex201100000861JBJ.

Cass. soc., 23 November 1999, LawLex200200004576JBJ, tacit solution; 27 May 2001, LawLex200200004446JBJ.

Cass. soc., 30 September 1997, LawLex200200006047JBJ; 6 March 2007, LawLex200700000332JBJ.

Cass. soc., 20 March 2007, LawLex200700000364JBJ: the reorganization of the undertaking, which is not related to economic difficulties or technological developments, but to a merger-absorption, may constitute an economic reason for the redundancy of the sales representative only if carried out to protect the competitiveness of the undertaking or the area of activity of the group of which it is part.

Cass. soc., 6 March 2002, LawLex200200004553JBJ.

Cass. soc., 25 April 2007, LawLex200700000455JBJ; 28 September 2010, LawLex201000001060JBJ.

Cass. soc., 21 September 2005, LawLex200500010150JBJ.

French Distribution Law

587. Conditions.

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

587. Conditions.

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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