The legal protection offered to commercial agents continues to be contentious, say Beverley Flynn and Navdeep Gill
Commercial agents have received legal protection since the mid 1990s by virtue of the Commercial Agents (Council Directive) Regulations 1993 (SI 1993/3053) (the regulations). In general terms, the regulations apply to any self employed agent who has continuing authority to negotiate the sale or purchase of goods on behalf of a principal. The regulations do not apply to unpaid agents or those whose activities are considered to be secondary.
One of the most contentious aspects of the regulations has been the right of commercial agents to claim compensation in certain circumstances upon termination of the relationship.
There have been two recent cases which have dealt with different aspects of the regulations. The first, Crane v Sky In-Home Service Ltd and another [2007] EWHC 66 (Ch), [2007] All ER (D) 220 (Jan), looked at the application of the secondary test and whether an agent’s activities fell outside of the regulations as a result of those activities being secondary. The other, Lonsdale (trading as Lonsdale Agencies) v Howard &
