{"id":3004,"date":"2026-10-08T23:57:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T21:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/example.invalid\/?p=3004"},"modified":"2026-11-13T00:12:44","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T23:12:44","slug":"baisse-commandes-rupture-brutale-relation-commerciale-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/baisse-commandes-rupture-brutale-relation-commerciale-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall in orders: a sudden breakdown in the relationship may occur without the contract being terminated"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/rupture-brutale-des-relations-commerciales-comment-savoir-si-les-conditions-sont-reunies\/\">abrupt termination of an established commercial relationship<\/a> does not necessarily require formal termination of the contract or a complete halt to orders.<\/p>\n<h2>Termination can be partial<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000044224525\">Article L. 442-1(II) of the French Commercial Code<\/a> penalises termination, \u201ceven partial\u201d, of an established commercial relationship without sufficient written notice.<\/p>\n<p>A substantial reduction in order volumes may therefore amount to partial termination, even where commercial dealings continue.<\/p>\n<p>The French Court of Cassation reiterated this in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/juri\/id\/JURITEXT000028009667\">judgment of 24 September 2013<\/a>. In that case, the customer had never formally ended the relationship and some orders remained. The Court nevertheless overturned a decision dismissing abrupt termination without adequately examining whether the sharp fall in business amounted to partial termination.<\/p>\n<p>Not every fall in orders automatically constitutes abrupt termination.<\/p>\n<h2>Distinguishing a fluctuation from termination<\/h2>\n<p>The assessment includes the scale and lasting nature of the reduction, the circumstances in which it occurs and its cause.<\/p>\n<p>A decline in business may, for instance, not be wrongful where it results from a reduction in the customer\u2019s own activity or an objective change in the market.<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, a substantial reduction in orders resulting from a partner\u2019s decision may amount to partial termination even where some business continues.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courdecassation.fr\/decision\/675a7dcbb524b2d3ee426078\">Paris Court of Appeal, in a judgment of 12 December 2024<\/a>, reiterated that not every reduction in turnover amounts to termination: the decrease must in particular be sufficiently substantial.<\/p>\n<p>No percentage threshold therefore determines, by itself, whether a fall in orders constitutes partial termination.<\/p>\n<p>The real difficulty is to distinguish <strong>normal fluctuations in the commercial relationship from a sufficiently significant change in business to amount legally to termination<\/strong>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since August 2026, the Commercial Code has expressly covered certain substantial reductions in volumes that are likely to disrupt an established commercial relationship.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-droit-commercial"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3004"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3250,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3004\/revisions\/3250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}