PIL instrument(s)

Case number and/or case name

M. BVBA v. R. BV - 03888/03 - Kh. Kortrijk, 6 November 2003

Details of the court

Belgium, First Instance

Articles referred to by the court

Date of the judgement

05 November 2003

Appeal history

CJEU's case law cited by the court

Summary

The claimant is a commercial agent who brokered a contract between the defendant and a third party, company “C”. The parties agreed that the claimant would receive a commission of 5% on the net amount of the contract. The claimant issued an invoice but never received the sum. He now sues the defendant in the amount of 2.542,57 EUR plus interests. The claimant did not put any evidence before the court in order to prove the existence of a longstanding and regular commercial relations between the parties. The choice of forum clause on the reverse side of its invoices does not fulfil the requirements of Art. 23(1)(b). The Court then goes on to examine its jurisdiction under Art. 5(1). The Court states it is not entirely clear in what capacity the claimant represented the defendant and that the nature of the contract between them is hard to define. The Court refers to Art. 50 of the Rome Treaty to define a “service” and concludes that the agreement between the parties is a service provided by the commercial agent to the defendant against remuneration. Since the claimant conducted and organised the negotiations from its seat in Belgium, this is where the service was performed and the Belgian courts have jurisdiction. Short critique The Court correctly applies the Brussels I Regulation. At the time, lower courts were not allowed to refer questions for preliminary ruling to the ECJ.