April 2021

Provisional Order of the Athens Court of First Instance on the Prohibition of Competitive Acts

An Interim Order was recently published by the Athens Court of First Instance, which ordered a company operating in the field of mediation and specifically in the energy sector, to refrain from providing services for finding and attracting customers and mediating the submission for their accounts of electricity supply applications to two specific companies - electricity suppliers with whom it was already cooperating. At the same time, by the said Provisional Order the company was also ordered to refrain from any kind of direct or indirect participation, through third legal or natural persons, in undertakings providing services for the intermediation and solicitation of customers to the above mentioned companies - electricity suppliers, i.e. it was ordered not to substitute its action through third persons, in order to appear (allegedly) to be consistent with its commitments and thus avoid its obligations. The legal basis for the issuance of the said Provisional Order against the above company was a post-contractual non-competition clause, which was provided for in a commercial agency agreement between the company and our client - an electricity supplier company, and which is valid for a period of twelve (12) months from the termination of the above-mentioned agreement. 

In particular, the relevant passage of that interim order is set out below: 'It orders the first defendant to refrain temporarily from providing services for finding and attracting customers and from acting as an intermediary for the submission of applications for the supply of electricity on their behalf to the companies {...} (i.e. electricity suppliers), and to refrain from participating directly or indirectly, through third parties, legal or natural persons, in undertakings providing similar services to the abovementioned companies'.