The Luxembourg District Court holds that an agreement between a petrol company and a petrol station is an agency agreement outside the scope of the prohibition of cartels (Aral / Koepfler)

Case Koepfler s.à r.l. (“Koepfler”) operated on an independent basis one of the petrol stations of Aral Luxembourg S.A. (“Aral”), a subsidiary of the German petrol group Aral. Aral and Koepfler had concluded an agency agreement in this respect in 1984. Pursuant to this agreement Koepfler had to provide a bank guarantee, since petrol station operators hold important assets on behalf of Aral for a long period of time. By agreement of 1994 the original agency agreement was renewed for another 5 years until 31 December 1999 and provided for a unilateral option to the benefit of Aral to renew the agreement until 31 December 2004. In 1996 Koepfler terminated the agreement as