THE IMPACT OF THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 86/653/EEC ON THE ROMANIAN LEGISLATION REGARDING THE TERMINATION OF THE AGENCY CONTRACT, AS A MANDATE IN COMMON INTEREST

Abstract

This article aims to highlight a contract that has proven its great importance in commerce, namely the agency, as a legal mechanism that provides an extremely flexible juridical framework for many professional activities. In 1986, the agency contract received its own rules at a European Community level, by the adoption of the European Council Directive no. 86/653, regarding the harmonization of the Member States legislations concerning the independent commercial agents. This directive was intended to eliminate the existing regulatory differences in the laws of the Member States relating to commercial representation, which affected competition and the smooth running of trade relations within the Community. Legal doctrine and jurisprudence have revealed the complexity of this type of conventional relations, especially in the case of unilateral termination of contract, since agency is generally considered a type of mandate in common interest and the revocability of such an agreement is questionable, given the mutual and common interest of the contracting parties in the execution of the contract. In this context of uncertainty, the European Council Directive no. 86/653 brought important clarifications, which were later taken over in the national legislation, namely the Law no. 509/2002 and later the Civil Code, regarding the right to unilateral revocation, the limits of its exercise, as well as the indemnity for contractual termination.

Keywords

• agency
• mandate in common interest
• unilateral termination of contract
• indemnity