The court ordered an account of profits as a remedy for breach of a contractual scheme called ‘Pricewatch’ operated by the claimant with its dealers, who agreed to report competitors’ prices and to abide by prices set daily by Esso to match the competition. Dealers received financial support by Esso for this. The defendant repeatedly failed to maintain prices, but gave repeated assurances that he would do so. Damages were inadequate, since Esso could not attribute lost sales to breach by one dealer. Yet the obligation was fundamental to its operation, and the failure gave the lie to Esso’s advertising campaign. Account was also taken of the defendant’s repetition of its breaches, and of Esso’s legitimate interest in preventing the defendant profiting. The account of profits was also appropriate when the defendant had been receiving financial support from Esso to maintain Pricewatch.
Judges:
Sir Andrew Morritt V-C
Citations:
[2001] EWHC Ch 458, [2001] All ER (D) 324
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
See Also – Esso Petroleum Co Ltd v Niad Ltd ChD 2001
Esso had entered into a solus agreement with Naid covering one filling station. Esso introduced a marketing scheme called ‘Pricewatch’ under which it made financial support available to its dealers in return for their selling petrol at recommended . .
Cited by:
Cited – Experience Hendrix LLC v PPX Enterprises Inc and Another CA 20-Mar-2003
The claimant had obtained an interim injunction against the defendant for copyright infringement, though it could show no losses. It now sought additionally damages. The defendant argued that it could not have both.
Held: The case arose form . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Damages, Contract
Updated: 07 June 2022; Ref: scu.180882
