We have already discussed the duty to provide information enabling an agent to verify commission. Today we examine the principal’s other information obligation: providing a statement of the commission due.
📌 Although both obligations help establish the agent’s commission, they differ in nature.
➡️ Providing a statement means supplying the data needed to calculate commission, such as the number of contracts or the value of commission-bearing transactions.
➡️ Providing information to verify commission also extends to underlying documentation, such as extracts from the commercial books.
📌 Another important distinction concerns how the obligations arise.
➡️ The duty to provide a statement arises by operation of law on the last day of the month following the quarter in which the agent earned commission.
➡️ The obligation to provide underlying documents arises only when the agent makes a request.
📌 The agent’s enforcement rights also differ.
➡️ For an information claim, the legislation expressly provides that the duty can be enforced through court proceedings.
➡️ The position is different for a commission statement. Case law takes the view that this obligation is not independently enforceable, so the agent cannot bring a separate action to compel its performance.
NOTE ❗ Whether a commission statement claim is enforceable is disputed, however, and will probably be determined by the Court of Justice of the European Union in a case already pending.
⚠️ How can a principal defend against an agent’s claim for a commission statement?
The key argument is that the obligation cannot be independently enforced. As with other information claims, the principal may also defend the claim by showing that no commission is due or that the requested data is too broad in scope.
