The House of Lords will rule next week in Lonsdale v Howard & Hallam Ltd whether or not the French approach of awarding a commercial agent two years’ gross commission on termination should be followed in England.
The Winemakers’ Federation of Australia (WFA) has been given permission to intervene and claims the Court of Appeal was right to reject the French system, but wrong to hold that the agent should normally be awarded the value of the agency business at the termination date without qualifications. The WFA says this could add millions to Australian wine producers’ costs of exporting to the UK.
