Legal Requirements for Sales Representation
Sales representation is a very important profession in the business sector. This article outlines the legal requirements that must be followed in Brazil to exercise this profession.
In Brazil, sales representation as a profession was only recognized in 1966 through the Law No. 4.886/65, passed in Congress and signed by President Humberto Castelo Branco, which received significant changes when the Law No. 8,420, in 1992, was signed by President Fernando Collor de Mello.
Sales Representation Councils
Together with the 1966 law, the Federal Council of Sales Representatives was created. Usually known as Confere, the council is a governing body of the System Confere/Cores (Regional Councils of Sales Representation) that regulates and standardizes the Regional Councils in the Federation. The main responsibility of the Council is to supervise the exercise of sales representation activity in Brazil.
The law defines that it's exercising commercial representation, the legal entity or the private person that performs: the mediation to the realization of commercial business, managing proposals and requests in order to transmit it to the represented.
Requirements to Exercise Sales Representation
Legal entities or private persons that are interested in being a sales representative can't:
- Be a merchant.
- Be bankrupt.
- Had been convicted for negligent or fraudulent bankruptcy, embezzlement, breach of trust, fraudulent misrepresentation, larceny or robbery and offenses.
- Have lost its commercial registry as a penalty.
Registration in Cores
These companies and individuals must be dully registered in the Regional Councils to be allowed to exercise sales representation. Since the Cores are regional councils, they are subject to State legislation in which they're placed, and sometimes the documents required by a Council may be different from the ones required by another Council.Generally, to apply for the registry, the interested parties must present to the Core unit:
Companies
- Articles of association (copy)
- CNPJ card (copy)
- Proof of residence (copy)
- Labor union contributions discharge
- Identity card and CPF of all partners (copy)
- power of attornet indicating the legal representative of the company, signed by all partners.
Individuals
- Identity card (copy)
- CPF (copy)
- Proof of military service discharge, if the military service was required
- Proof of being in accordance with electoral legislation requirements (copy)
- Proof of residence (copy)
- Labor union contributions discharge
- Three photos, sized 3x4.
Foreigners who want to exercise this activity are exempted from presenting the proof of military service discharge, the proof of being in accordance with electoral legislation requirements and legal entities must provide a proof of their legal existence.
Sales Representation Agreement
After being registered in the sales representation councils, the individual or company can finally start working in this sector. To provide services of sale representation, the professional must established an agreement between himself and the client – the represented. The Law No. 8,420 gives eight elements that must be comprised in any sales representation agreement.
What Must be Included?
The sales representation agreement, in addition to the common elements and other stakeholders of the judgment, must contain:
- General conditions and requirements of representation
- Indication of the generic or specific products or articles that will be represented
- Terms of representation
- Specification of the area or areas in which it will exercise the representation
- Define exclusivity or non exclusivity of an area
- Define compensation value and payment terms
- Justification of exclusivity terms
- Obligations and responsibilities of the parties.
The sales representative must provide to the represented detailed information about the progress of the business in charge and devote themselves to the representation, in order to expand the represented business and promote their products.