Commercial agency: The Grenoble Court of Appeal considers that the intermediary in charge of putting in contact and following up the customers is a broker and not a commercial agent (Ortho Ouest / Zimmer Biomet)

*This article is an automatic translation of the original article, provided here for your convenience. Read the original article. The recomposition of the field of distribution is underway: the imperialism of the category of commercial agents, catalysed by an extensive conception of negotiating power, tends to significantly reduce that of brokers. Recent jurisprudence seems to give rise to the notion of "putting in contact", which draws the line between the broker and the commercial agent; a notion that the Grenoble Court of Appeal has, in this case, mobilised and illustrated. Facts A manufacturer of surgical implants entered into a contract with a distributor in 2012 (in parallel with a distribution contract covering a different contract territory), entitled "brokerage", for a