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within a reasonable period after the contract terminated; or (ii) the
order of the third party in relation to a transaction that would normal-
ly entitle the agent to commission during the term of the contract
reached by the principal or the agent prior to the termination of the
contract. Art. 113/3 of the TCC also follows these same conditions.
Notice Periods
A contract is deemed to be indefinite if it does not provide any spe-
cific term, or if both parties continue to perform the fixed-period con-
tract after the expiry of its term. The Directive determines minimum
notice periods for the termination of indefinite term contracts depend-
ing on the timing of the notice; i.e. one month for the first year of the
contract, two months for the second year, and three months for the
third year and subsequent years. The parties are not allowed to agree
on shorter notice periods.
National laws of the member states may fix longer notice periods;
i.e. four months for the fourth year of the contract, five months for the
fifth year, and six months for the sixth and subsequent years, and may
decide that the parties may not agree to shorter periods. Turkish law
fixes the notice period as three months.
Considering the freedom to set longer notice periods, setting of the
same may be an essential content of the termination agreements. If
longer periods are provided in the agreement, it is important to know
that the notice period to be observed by the principal cannot be short-
er than the one to be observed by the agent, and any attempted waiver
of this right will be void.
Indemnity and Compensation
The Directive offers choices to the member states to include in
their local legislations (goodwill) indemnity or compensation. Parties
are not allowed to derogate from the provisions on indemnity and com-
pensation that are to the detriment of the agent prior to the expiry of
the agency contract. The agent loses his entitlement to indemnity or to
compensation if he does not notify the principal that he intends to pur-
sue his entitlement within one year following the termination of the
contract.
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