Gentlemen`s Agreement Hamburg

The reasons for a gentlemen`s agreement may be motivated by a legally inadmissible purpose of the agreement, i.e. a violation of legal prohibitions. The gentlemen`s agreement refers to concerted practices on the part of companies that are based on deliberate coordination, but not on legal ties. Companies that, as a whole, have a dominant position in the market, enter into price agreements and thus exclude market forces for price formation to the detriment of the consumer. Concerted practices are prohibited by German and European rules on cartels and abuse of dominant position (Article 101, paragraph 1, TFUE). [8] In particular, another case may be reserved for traders if the contracting parties believe that it is sufficient to reach a general agreement whose organization is entrusted in detail to the commercial decency of both parties, without the parties acquiring questionable rights. [4] According to the Hanseatischen Oberlandesgericht such non-binding agreements between traders are not uncommon. An agreement called the Gentlemen`s Agreement is characterized by the fact that it is a commitment of goodwill and commercial decency on the part of one or both parties which, according to the wishes of the parties, should not create claims. The debtor should behave as a gentleman who should not be legally binding. [9] In international law, agreements between custodians of bodies in different states that are not legally binding on states are referred to as gentlemen`s agreement. At most, they have a commitment effect based on good manners.

In their effects, they outperform political declarations of intent (always reversible from political orientation) and codes of conduct (codes of conduct – non-binding recommendations of a certain typical behaviour). [10] A classic gentlemen`s agreement is the final act of the Helsinki CSCE. [11] The gentlemen`s agreement should be separated from the oral contracts which, in principle, are legally binding in all their elements, but whose content cannot often be proven in the event of a dispute. In this respect, the agreement reached by a handshake is a social duty of its realization.