Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1998:36
Date: 1998-01-29
Language of the case: Italian
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Right of establishment;Freedom to provide services
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Italy

Summary of the Judgment 
Freedom of movement for persons — Freedom of establishment — Independent commercial 
agents — Directive 86/653 — National rule which makes the validity of an agency contract con­
ditional upon the commercial agent being entered in the appropriate register — Not permissible 
(Council Directive 86/653, Art. 1(2) and 13(2)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-215/97 
Directive 86/653 on the coordination of the 
laws of the Member States relating to self-
employed commercial agents precludes a 
national rule which makes the validity of an 
agency contract conditional upon the com­
mercial agent being entered in the appropri­
ate register. 
Since entry in a register is not referred to as a 
condition for protection under the Directive, 
it follows that protection under the Directive 
is not conditional upon entry in a register. 
As regards the form of the agency contract, 
Article 13(2) of the Directive permits Mem­
ber States to 'provide that an agency contract 
shall not be valid unless evidenced in writ­
ing'. It follows, on the one hand, that the 
Directive starts from the principle that the 
contract is not subject to any formal require­
ment, whilst leaving it open to the Member 
States to require it to be in writing. On the 
other hand, by referring only to the require­
ment that the contract be in writing in order 
to be valid, the Community legislature dealt 
exhaustively with the matter in that pro­
vision. Member States may therefore not 
impose any condition other than requiring 
that a written document be drawn up. 
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