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In it for the long haul?

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27 July 2012 / Joanne Keillor , Caroline Kehoe
Issue: 7524 / Categories: Features , Commercial
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Caroline Kehoe & Joanne Keillor examine the consequences of an endeavours obligation on a long term contract

“Parties should approach an endeavours obligation contained within a long-term contract with particular caution”

What are the implications of an endeavours obligation in a long-term contract? What happens if the commercial circumstances change, such that it is no longer desirable for a party to continue to perform a contract in the same way it has been performed initially? Can the party limit or abandon its performance because it would otherwise incur a loss?

These issues arose in the case of Jet2.com Limited v Blackpool Airport Limited [2012] EWCA Civ 417, [2012] All ER (D) 24 (Apr) where the Court of Appeal found, by a majority, that Blackpool’s obligation to use best endeavours to promote Jet2’s low-cost services gave rise to an enforceable obligation to operate outside normal opening hours, as this was essential to Jet2’s business model. Blackpool could not escape this obligation on the basis that to comply would be

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