Distribution agreements

Distribution agreements cover (part of) a sales or distribution channel of a company, usually limited to a certain geographical territory or market segment. In addition to the company’s own sales activities, it may engage a commercial agent or sell to a distributor, a reseller, in order to increase its turnover.

A main reason to appoint a distributor or agent is that the supplier is unable to carry out distribution or sales in the particular territory or market segment alone, or is unwilling to invest in the infrastructure required for distribution. A distribution agreement can assure that the sales and distribution of the supplier’s goods is undertaken in an efficient and vigorous manner. In this chapter, we discuss aspects of a distributorship on the basis of the ITC Model International Distribution Agreement (PDF). But you may as well use Weagree’s model distribution agreement as a useful sample.

(Commercial) agency vs. distribution agreements – what to choose? #

It is extremely important to distinguish between (commercial) agency, on the one hand, and distributorship, on the other hand. A (commercial) agent is a representative of its principal (who sells to the customers found by the agent), whereas a distributor buys the goods from the supplier and resells them (for the risk and at the account of the distributor itself) to its customers (who are often also the end-users).

Key clauses of distribution agreements #

Appointment for a territory or market
The appointment of an agency or distributor is usually limited to a certain geographical area (i.e. a country or part of a country), a specific market segment (e.g. supermarkets, fitness centres, swimming pools, shopping malls, petrol stations), or a type of promotion or customer channel (e.g. general consumers, tv-broadcasting, printed magazines, luxury brand shops). Note that from a competition (antitrust) law perspective, it is not permitted to restrict a distributor from selling passively to customers from outside the appointed territory, and it is also not permitted to forbid a distributor to sell through the internet.

It is important to note that the principal/supplier may wish to exclude certain key customers which have their main place of business outside the territory from the scope granted to the agent or distributor. Especially in commercial agency contracts, it is possible that the principal does not want the agent to conduct sales activities with (affiliated companies of) such key customers (and become entitled to commission). This is because decisions to buy from a supplier are often made on corporate (holding) level; whereas the sales activities are focused on that level, it would be inappropriate to reward sales locally (i.e. pay commission to the agent because incidentally, the formal buying entity was in its territory).

Exclusivity of appointment
An agent or a distributor will be appointed “exclusively”, “non-exclusively” or as “sole” representative for the principal/supplier. “Exclusive” means that neither the principal/supplier nor a competitor of the agent/distributor is entitled to (be appointed for and) conduct sales activities in the agreed territory, market segment and customer channel. The distributor or agent will usually seek assurances that its efforts will be protected in some way, possibly by being appointed as the sole or the exclusive distributor, in a given territory. Conversely, a supplier may wish to ensure that the distributor’s efforts are concentrated in only the granted territory (Article 1).

Sole appointment (‘sole distributorship’)
If the appointment concerns a ‘sole’ agency or distributorship, the principal/supplier agrees not to appoint another agent or distributor for the same territory, market segment or customer channel. Nonetheless, the principal/supplier itself remains entitled to sell into that area. In other words, the appointed agent or distributor will be the only (sole) agent or distributor for that area, but will be operating alongside the principal/supplier.

Important incompatibilities
Both exclusive and non-exclusive arrangements may severely restrict the freedom of the principal or supplier in undertaking sales activities or appointing potentially more successful agents or distributors, because:

• The appointment of an exclusive distributor for a certain market segment prohibits the subsequent appointment of a non-exclusive distributor in the same territory for a broader market.
• The appointment of a non-exclusive agency for a certain territory prohibits the subsequent appointment of an exclusive agent in that same territory (even though the former is not de facto active in the market segment or customer channel covered by the latter). In such cases, the second appointment must contain a carve-out permitting the agent appointed first to continue its activities.
• If an agent is appointed with an exclusivity arrangement for a term of five years and the agent does not generate any sales, the territory and market segment for which the agent is appointed will effectively be ‘blocked’ for alternative sales efforts during that period of five years.

Interchangeability of contract clauses
Some clauses in the ITC Model international distribution of goods contract can be used in the ITC Model international commercial agency contract, and vice versa. You could essentially copy-paste the following Articles from the distribution of goods Model into the commercial agency Model:

• Article 7 (actions to be taken by the distributor);
• Article 8 (support and training); and
• Article 9 (intellectual property rights).

In such case, the term Distributor from this Distribution agreement must be changed to “Agent”; and the term Supplier to “Principal”.

Note: this chapter is also included in the e-book Cross-border contracting – How to draft and negotiate international commercial contracts, written by Weagree-founder Willem Wiggers and published by the ITC (the joint agency of the U.N. and WTO) and downloadable free of charge.