International

It is important to write down in a legal business agreement exactly what parties aim to achieve and also to obtain absolute clarity on what the legal business agreement actually does for both parties. There are generally speaking four stages that may apply in an international legal business agreement. These are as follows.

• pre-contractual phase – this is when parties have the intention to do business together and want to put this in writing, by way of a Letter of Intent. Also, it could be that parties have reached agreement on certain aspects and need to quantify this in an agreement and set out the following steps in a Memorandum of Understanding or Heads of Agreement.
• contractual phase – this is where agreement has been reached from a commercial point of view and this needs to be recorded and further worked out in a legal agreement. This can be a corporate legal business agreement such as long-term agreements, fixed term agreements, sale purchase agreement or a joint-venture for example. This can also be a commercial legal business agreements such as sale agreements of a product/service, purchase agreements, agency agreement, distribution agreement or an agency agreement. All legal business agreements set out the terms that have been agreed between the parties along with the legal terms and conditions to give the parties the right form of protection and rights.
• post-contract phase – this is where the legal business agreement is implemented in the same way as parties agreed at the time. Also the legal business agreement may need to be varied, by way of a Deed of Variation which makes the relevant changes as required. Also the legal business agreement may need an addition and this is done by way of an Addendum. This is a document that is added to the present legal business agreement.
• dispute stage – this could be when there is a breach of one of the terms, or if a certain term is invoked such as force majeure where performance of the legal agreement is no longer possible. In this case the legal agreement needs to be consulted in conjunction with the applicable law clause to determine the rights of the party that has been affected.

Please contact Madelon van Breemen on (+31) (0) 10 2092756 or at vanbreemen@lvh-advocaten.nl or Peter Verheijden on (+31) 10 2092743 or at verheijden@lvh-advocaten.nl for further information.