Extinction of supply contracts between corporations and economic concentrations: a needed approach of hybrid forms

• Grant number: 15/11545-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2015
• End date: September 30, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Law - Private Law
• Principal Investigator: Gustavo Saad Diniz
• Grantee: Natália Marques de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Direito de Ribeirão Preto (FDRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Commercial Law is marked by changes corresponding to new business which guides entrepreneurs over time. During the last century, and until the present time, the "deverticalization" of the corporate group's activities is increasingly common, who relinquish control to their suppliers in order to sign long-term contracts with them. Those contracts, known as relation contracts, are well known in economics. They belong to the "hybrid forms", which escapes from the market and the hierarchy forms of economic organization, not being supported, however, by a legal discipline which meets their peculiarities, mainly those assigned to the possibility of economic dependency between the contract parties. This study aims to examine the main implications of the hybrid nature of long-term supply contracts which have economic dependency potential, especially on their extinction, as well as to identify a useful and efficient legal apparatus for them, regarding the values protected by Brazilian Law. The method will be exploratory, using the data collected by literature (referring to the hybrid forms, to the relation contracts and specifically to the supply contracts) and by the analysis of real examples, aiming to provide a suited systematization for a topic rarely addressed in national doctrine, supported by New Institutional Economics (NIE).