45Conversely, where the agreements concluded between a principal and its intermediaries confer on or allow them functions which, from an economic point of view, are approximately the same as those carried out by an independent economic operator, because they make provision for those intermediaries to assume the financial and commercial risks linked to sales or the performance of contracts entered into with third parties, such intermediaries cannot be regarded as auxiliary organs forming an integral part of the principal's undertaking, so that a clause restricting competition which they have entered into may be an agreement between undertakings for the purposes of Article 85 of the Treaty (see, to that effect, Suiker Unie, paragraphs 541 and 542).
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