Australian Export A Guide to Law and Practice

A principal is the person or company that appoints an overseas representative. For the purposes of this chapter this is the Australian exporter.

If the overseas representative is appointed by the Australian principal as an ‘agent’, the agent’s role is usually to find customers for the principal’s products and refer the customers to the principal so that a contract for sale can be entered into by the principal and the customer.

If the overseas representative appointed by the principal is a distributor, the principal will sell its product to the distributor, who will on-sell them to customers in the overseas country.

The terms and conditions of an agency agreement or a distribution agreement refer to the document that sets out the respective rights and obligations of the principal and the agent in an agency agreement and the principal and the distributor in a distribution agreement.

Laws of an overseas country that commonly affect agency and distribution arrangements are laws that affect the rights of customers regarding the agent and the principal, laws that affect the termination of any agency and distribution agreements and competition laws.

Competition laws are laws that seek to preserve competition in the market.

The differences between an agency arrangement and a distribution arrangement and reasons an exporter might select one over the other

The factors an exporter needs to consider when appointing agents or distributors

The important terms and conditions of agency and distribution agreements, and the reasons for their significance

Laws dealing with principal and agent relations with third parties, termination of the relationship, and competition to the extent they affect the relationship between principal and agent or principal and distributor.