Official Journal of the European Union

(Case C-348/07) (*)

(Directive 86/653/EEC - Article 17 - Self-employed commercial agents - Termination of a contract - Right to an indemnity - Determining the amount of the indemnity)

2009/C 113/14

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Turgay Semen

Defendant: Deutsche Tamoil GmbH

Re:

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Landgericht Hamburg — Interpretation of Article 17(2)(a) of Council Directive 86/653/EEC of 18 December 1986 on the coordination of the laws of the Member States relating to self-employed commercial agents (OJ 1986 L 382, p. 17) — Entitlement of commercial agent to an indemnity after termination of the agency contract — Determination of the amount of that indemnity in a situation in which the benefits which the principal continues to derive from business with customers which the commercial agent brought exceed the latter’s loss of commission

Operative part of the judgment

1.Article 17(2)(a) of Council Directive 86/653/EEC of 18 December 1986 on the coordination of the laws of the Member States relating to self-employed commercial agents is to be interpreted to the effect that it is not possible automatically to limit the indemnity to which a commercial agent is entitled by the amount of commission lost as a result of the termination of the agency contract, even though the benefits which the principal continues to derive have to be given a higher monetary value.

2.Article 17(2)(a) of Directive 86/653 is to be interpreted to the effect that, where the principal belongs to a group of companies, benefits accruing to other companies of that group are not, in principle, deemed to be benefits accruing to the principal and, consequently, do not necessarily have to be taken into account for the purposes of calculating the amount of indemnity to which a commercial agent is entitled.

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(*) Language of the case: German.