Judgment_paragraph 5 · Francesca Caprini v Conservatore Camera di Commercio, Industria, Artigianato e Agricoltura (CCIAA) (C-485/01)

5Italian Law No 204 of 3 May 1985 (GURI No 119 of 22 May 1985, p. 3623) provides for the establishment of a register of commercial agents and representatives in which all persons wishing to pursue such an activity are obliged to enrol under pain of an administrative penalty. Having been asked by an Italian court whether the Directive precludes the provisions of that Law which make the validity of agency contracts subject to enrolment of commercial agents in a register provided for that purpose, the Court ruled, in paragraph 14 of its judgment in Case C-215/97 Bellone [1998] ECR I-2191, that it follows from Article 13(2) of the Directive — which permits Member States to ‘provide that an agency contract shall not be valid unless evidenced in writing’ — that the Directive starts from the principle that such a contract is not subject to any formal requirement, while leaving it open to the Member States to require it to be in writing, and that, by referring only to the requirement that the contract be in writing in order to be valid, the Community legislature dealt exhaustively with the matter in that provision. Member States may therefore not impose any condition other than requiring that a written document be drawn up. From this the Court concluded, in paragraph 15 of its judgment in Bellone, that entry of the agent in a register cannot be accepted as a condition for the validity of the contract.

Francesca Caprini v Conservatore Camera di Commercio, Industria, Artigianato e Agricoltura (CCIAA) (C-485/01)

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