Together with commercial agency agreements, distribution contracts are a frequently used mechanism for organizing the distribution of goods in a foreign country. The ICC first drew up a model contract on international distributorship in 1994. Particularly to take account of the EU antitrust rules on vertical restraints, a revision was published in 2002.

A second revision of the model has recently been published, taking account of developments in the laws affecting distribution and also to ensure that the contract is in harmony with the other ICC model contracts.

Among the changes are newly drafted provisions on online sales by distributors in accordance with the corporate identity of the supplier. The revised model also provides a structure for organizing a common structure of a common and complementary market strategy.

As member of the working group on Agency and Distributorship under the auspices of the ICC Commission on Commercial Law and Practice, Loyals’ Jaap van Till actively participated in the revision process.

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