Question

Law question

John is the managing directors of Pearson Ltd, a medium size company which sells custom made Italian light fixtures. For the past 12 years, John has exclusively imported component parts from the Italian based company Lumitalia spA, who create innovative light fittings in a number of different designs and shapes.

During the course of an annual visit to the Lumitalia spAoffices in Milan, John renegotiates his contract with EmilioSchwarza, the managing director of LumiatliaspA, and they agree Pearson Ltd will buy the design blueprints for two of Lumitalia’s more successful ranges, so Pearson Ltd can manufacture the ranges themselves back in the UK.

John flies back to the UK, and arranges the transfer of funds to Lumitalia, but three months has subsequently passed and the design blueprints have still not been provided.

Advise John on any possible approaches he may want to consider in order to resolve this dispute.

Answer 1

You should be aware that many countries have laws that protect distributors and/or sales representatives from termination without specifically defined cause, or from other conduct that the country feels to be overreaching. All such arrangements should be in writing, and you should seek legal advice before entering into any distributorship or sales representation agreement, especially one that has minimum inventory requirements, broad or no-cause termination rights, and restrictions.

Yes John should have to take a legal action against the Lumitalia’s that, een after making yhe payment they are not delivering the blue prints of the models.

Non-Judicial Methods of dispute settlement

1. Negotiationand Consultation

Both the parties can settle their
international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace,
security and justice are not endangered.

A tribunal may be set up, and might require the
parties to negotiate in good faith, and could state what aspects the parties must consider
while negotiating.

Negotiation can also be defined as: a non-binding procedure involving
direct interaction of the disputing parties where in a party approaches the other with the
offer of a negotiated settlement based on an objective assessment of each other’s position

2. Inquiry and Fact finding

Where the nature of a dispute between two contracting parties is rooted in
different factual accounts of an event rather than a stated difference in terms of
international law, a historic approach has been to appoint an inquiry commission
containing well qualified members whose task is to find out the fact.

When party or parties fails or fail to fulfill their trade obligation in accordance
with their agreement, parties can establish enquiry commission in accordance with their
contract or agreement. Each party to the dispute appoints two members and the four
members thus designated or failing agreement, a third state, jointly agreed upon, selects
the fifth. Under Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the states parties
to the Protocol elect from a list of persons to which each of teams may nominate one
person, the 15 members of the International Fact Finding Commission : as to the Seven
member chamber to be set up unless otherwise agreed by the parties concerned in case of
an inquiry is requested, it consists of five members appointed by the President of the
commission after consultations with the parties and of the two ad hoc members to be
appointed by each side.

Conciliation

Conciliation is frequently used in international trade agreement. A conciliation
procedure aims at bringing the parties together before a third person whom they have
chosen for the purpose of settling their dispute, if it is successful; the settlement
agreement is recorded in conciliation minutes signed by the parties and conciliator.
It is a kind of formalized negotiation with the commission providing the necessary
assistance to the parties to resolve their differences44 as a method of peaceful settlement
of international dispute between parties.

John can also go for the Litigation and Arbitration under dispute between Exporter and Importer in an International Business.

The Department of Justice enforces the criminal provisions of the FCPA and the civil provisions against "domestic concerns." The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is responsible for civil enforcement against "issuers." The Department of Commerce supplies general information to U.S. exporters who have questions about the FCPA and about international developments concerning the FCPA.

Judicial Settlement

States parties to a dispute may seek a solution by submitting the dispute to a pre-constituted international court or tribunal composed of independent judges whose tasks are to settle claims on the basis of international law and render decisions which are binding upon the parties. This is generally referred to as judicial settlement, which constitutes one of the means of the peaceful settlement of international disputes set out in Article.33 of the Charter of the United Nations.

U.S. Customs levies severe penalties for fraud or negligence, so you have be sure that the information you give about your exports is accurate and complete. If you discover errors after your goods have entered the U.S., notify your customs broker immediately; you may be able to avoid penalties through prior disclosure of the mistake (in other words, before U.S. Customs detects it).

You will not normally be penalized for clerical errors or omissions, but negligence or gross negligence, as defined by U.S. Customs, can draw penalties of up to four times the duty or 40 percent of the value of the goods.