Legal Advice on Contract Termination

Questioner

We have been the main distributor of a particular brand for 4 years now, and we also have sales outlets for this brand that purchase through us. Now since yesterday we suddenly could no longer order from this brand, and we received an email that they were stopping the collaboration with us because we also sell another brand and they do not agree with that. For this specific brand we also had a website built at our own expense because we are the main distributor, on this website only this brand is listed and nothing else. Besides this website we have another website where we sell other brands and that is not allowed according to them and they no longer want to supply us and are now forced to stop. This brand was our main source of income, which has now suddenly disappeared and we are left in trouble. Think about the: - special website - loss of income - customers - the points of sale that cannot be supplied at the moment and which we therefore lose. Is this just allowed? We have a contract that states that we are the distributor of our land.

Lawyer

Such a (long-term) contract can be terminated, but a reasonable period of time must be observed. Terminating it from one day to the next without any announcement seems to me to be unlawful. If desired, I can help you to address your supplier about this.