Court of Justice of the European Union clarifies the rules on exclusive distribution and active sales: Beevers Kaas judgment

In the Beevers Kaas judgment (C-581/23), the CJEU reminded that a lawful exclusive distribution network requires not only allocating an exclusive territory to a distributor, but also imposing a parallel ban on active sales on all other distributors with their express or tacit agreement. The mere lack of active sales into such territory is insufficient proof of a valid agreement. The burden of proof that other distributors agreed not to actively sell in the allocated territory falls on the supplier or exclusive distributor willing to enforce such clause.

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