My diploma thesis called "Distribution Agreements" treats of distribution agreements as one possible way of distribution of products. Distribution agreements are a type of distribution relations arrangement where the purchaser buys products from the supplier in order to distribute them. The topic of distribution agreements is interesting especially from the reason that the distribution agreements are a very frequent and necessary legal instrument in business relations, but are not legaly regulated on national, european or even on the international scale. Neither the law theory treats of them too much. On the other side, there is a quite broad decision practice of Competion Authority and practice of the European Court of Justice. These decisions were used as a basis of this thesis. Distribution agreements do not only handle the contractual relationship, but they have often anti-competitive effects. In this diploma thesis I handle both the aspect of contractual law and the aspect of competition law. The aim of the work is especially to describe the distribution agreement in the sence of an innominate contract type and to determine its essentials. The core of the work is a categorization of distribution agreements into individual types of distribution agreements, their characteristics and finding...

Šiame magistro baigiamajame darbe analizuojami prekiavimo susitarimų teisinio vertinimo ypatumai ES ir LR konkurencijos teisėje. Praktikoje egzistuoja ir daugiau prekiavimo susitarimų formų, tačiau šiame darbe analizuojamos tik Komisijos praktikoje dažniausiai nagrinėtos prekiavimo susitarimų formos: bendras pardavimas, abipusis ir neabipusis platinimas ir bendras reklamavimas. Šiame darbe analizuojama prekiavimo susitarimų samprata, apibrėžiamos atskirų prekiavimo susitarimų formų sąvokos, nustatomi prekiavimo susitarimus sudarančių subjektų požymiai, analizuojami prekiavimo susitarimų teisinio vertinimo ypatumai ES ir LR konkurencijos teisėje, nustatomos prekiavimo susitarimų teisinio vertinimo sąlygos, analizuojama konkurencijos priežiūros institucijų praktika, vertinant bendro pardavimo, abipusio ir neabipusio platinimo bei bendro reklamavimo susitarimus, apibrėžiama atskirų prekiavimo susitarimų formų vertinimo specifika, t. y. nustatoma, kokiais atvejais atskiros prekiavimo susitarimų formos yra laikomos įprastai ribojančiomis konkurenciją, o kokiais atvejais įprastai konkurencijos problemų nesukeliančiomis. Šiame darbe patvirtinama hipotezė, kad prekiavimo susitarimų skirstymas į atskiras formas neturi teisinės reikšmės tokiuose susitarimuose nustatomų horizontaliųjų apribojimų vertinimui, kadangi nepriklausomai nuo to, kurioje prekiavimo susitarimų formoje šie apribojimai yra nustatomi, jie yra vertinami lygiai taip pat. Darbe taip pat patvirtinama hipotezė, kad... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The Master thesis analyses the peculiarities of legal assessment of commercialisation agreements under the competition law of the European Union and the Republic of Lithuania. Taking into consideration the fact that in practice there are more forms of commercialisation agreements, it should be noted, that the study examines only the forms of commercialisation agreements which were estimated in the Commission practice most often: joint selling, reciprocal and non-reciprocal distribution and joint advertising. The study examines the concept of commercialisation agreements, determines different forms of commercialisation agreements, identifies attributes of the entering parties and defines conditions of legal assessment of the commercialisation agreements. The thesis also analyses practice of competition authorities by estimating the agreements of joint selling, reciprocal and non-reciprocal distribution and joint advertising. Furthermore, it determines particularity of the assessment of individual commercialisation agreements, i.e. confirms circumstances in which usually some forms of the agreements can be considered as restricting competition and circumstances in which usually these agreements have no competition difficulties. This work proves the hypothesis that commercialisation agreements division into several forms does not have legal importance for the assessment of their horizontal restraints because the agreements are assessed equally without reference to the... [to full text]

En France et au Brésil, les contrats de concession commerciale et de franchise sont généralement innommés, à l’exception de la concession commerciale de véhicules automobiles terrestres et de la franchise en droit brésilien. L’internationalité du litige met en évidence des difficultés spécifiques relatives à la détermination de la juridiction étatique compétente et du droit applicable au contrat de distribution. Il existe un désaccord au sein des tribunaux français quant à la nature de la responsabilité engagée par l’auteur de la rupture abusive du contrat. Ces difficultés sont mises en évidence dès lors que des règles en matière de compétence internationale de source communautaire sont applicables au litige, à la différence du litige soumis à l`arbitrage. Concernant le droit brésilien, l’étude dévoile une problématique relative à la place du principe de l’autonomie de la volonté des parties, lesquelles ne peuvent pas choisir le droit applicable à leur convention si le litige est soumis au juge étatique. En revanche, lorsque ce même contrat est soumis à l’arbitrage, les parties peuvent déterminer le droit applicable. / Distribution and franchising agreements are generally innominate commercial contracts under French and Brazilian law, with the exception of exclusive distribution agreements on land motor vehicles and the franchising under Brazilian law. The internationality of the dispute highlights specific difficulties relating to the determining the competent court and the applicable law. There is disagreement between French courts as to the nature of the liability by the person held responsible for the abusive breach of contract. These difficulties arise in cases where EU law-based rules of international jurisdiction are applicable to the dispute, contrary to the disputes which are subject to arbitration. In Brazilian law, the study exposes a problem concerning the place of the principle of party autonomy. The parties may not choose the law applicable to the contract if the dispute is submitted to a Brazilian judge. On the contrary, in case the contract is subject to arbitration, the parties may determine the applicable law.

Les accords verticaux correspondent pour l'essentiel au monomarquisme, à la distribution exclusive, à l'achat exclusif, à la distribution sélective, à la franchise et à la concession. Bien que leur diversité soit grande, ils constituent la plupart du temps des accords "de" concurrence car ils développent la concurrence intermarques. L'objectif principal de cette étude est de rechercher et d'analyser les critères d'appréciation des accords verticaux de distribution en droit de la concurrence français, communautaire et argentin. En droit de la concurrence communautaire, les accords de distribution font l'objet d'une importante réglementation et d'une riche jurisprudence. Les règles relatives aux accords verticaux ont subi une réforme qui a abouti à l'adoption d'un nouveau règlement d'exemption par catégorie (Règlement n° 330/2010) accompagné de nouvelles Lignes directrices sur les restrictions verticales. De nombreux accords verticaux bénéficient ainsi d'une exemption catégorielle leur conférant une présomption de légalité et en l'absence que ces accords bénéficient d'un règlement d'exemption par catégorie, ils demeurent tout de même exemptables, à condition que soit établi un bilan économique positif, notamment en raison de gains d'efficience. À la différence du droit communautaire de la concurrence, le droit argentin de la concurrence relatif aux accords verticaux n'a pas adopté de règlements d'exemption par catégorie et les autorités de concurrence argentines procèdent à une analyse au cas par cas des accords au travers de la règle de raison ainsi qu'à une analyse de leur incidence sur l'intérêt économique général. / Vertical agreements mostly correspond to single branding, exclusive distribution, exclusive purchase, selective distribution, franchising and concession. Although their variety is large, most of the time they constitute competition agreements because they increase inter-brand competition. The main aim of this study is to look for and to analyse the assessment criteria of distribution vertical agreements in French, European and Argentine Competition Laws. In European Competition Law, an important set of regulations and a rich case-law exist concerning distribution agreements. The rules concerning vertical agreements have been reformed ; as a consequence of this reform, a new Block Exemption Regulation (Regulation No 330/2010) has been adopted and accompanied by new Guidelines on Vertical Restraints. Lots of vertical agreements also benefit from Block Exemption which confers them a presumption of legality and in case these agreements do not benefit from the Block Exemption Regulation, they still can be exempted on the condition that a positive economic balance should be established, notably in view of efficiency gains. Unlike European Competition Law, the Argentine Competition Law concerning vertical agreements has not adopted Block Exemption Regulation and the Argentine competition authorities analyse each agreement in the light of the Rule of Reason and analyse their impact on the general economic interest.