Agency agreement
An agency agreement is a service or work contract that is important in business and law in accordance with Section 611 and Section 631 of the German Civil Code (BGB) , through which the debtor undertakes to carry out a business transferred to him by the performance creditor for a fee ( Section 675 (1) of the German Civil Code). One also speaks of a paid fiduciary business .
It is an independent economic activity that is carried out in the interest of another and within a foreign economic sphere of interest. As with an order, there is an indirect representation , which is not a representation i. S. d. § § 164 ff. BGB is before. In contrast to the representation in the aforementioned sense, the “representative” acts in his own name, is entitled and obliged himself and acquires property himself in the case of disposal transactions .
The "represented" only has contractual obligations from the agency. The “representative” acquires claims for reimbursement of expenses . If the agency contract has a brokerage service, it is also called an agency contract .
An important legal norm that falls back on the concept of agency is the regulation in the case of a businessman's silence on applications ( § 362 HGB).
Difference to the order
The difference to an order ( § 662 ff. BGB) lies in particular in the payment. Otherwise, the regulations for the order are generally to be applied to the agency order ( Section 675 (1) BGB).
Examples of agency agreements
Examples of agency agreements are in particular (cf. also § 1 Paragraph 2 No. 2, 4-9 HGB old version):
- taking over the processing or processing of goods for others, provided the trade is not operated as a craft ;
- the banking and currency exchange business ;
- taking over the transport of goods by sea, the business of the carriers or the institutions intended for the transport of people on land or inland waterways as well as the business of the tugboat companies;
- the business of the commission agents ( § 383 HGB), the freight forwarders or the warehouse keepers ;
- the business of commercial agents or brokers ;
- the publishing business as well as the other business of the book or art trade ;
- the business of the printing works , insofar as the trade is not operated as a craft
- In addition, the activities of a freelancer are often agency agreements .
