A Luxembourg Commercial Court finds several clauses in a franchising agreement to be anticompetitive and null yet upholds the rest of the agreement (Univers du Cuir Belgique / Cuir Center Luxembourg)

The undertaking Univers du Cuir Belgique (“UCB”) has taken over the franchising agreement that Belgian Comfort Company (“BCC”) had as a franchisor with Cuir Center Luxembourg (“CCL”), franchisee. UCB noticed that CCL did not respect the non-compete obligations imposed on it by the agreement and started proceedings before the Tribunal de commerce (“Commercial Court”) of Luxembourg against CCL in order to enforce these contractual obligations. CCL replied inter alia that the price-fixing and post contractual non-compete clauses of the franchising agreement violated Article 85(1) (now 81(1)) EC Treaty and that the agreement was null and void in its entirety on the basis of Article 85(2) (now 81(2)) EC Treaty. The Commercial Court of Luxembourg held in its judgment of 26 April 1991 that the