An agent's rights
cannot besigned away.

A self-employed intermediary with continuing authority to negotiate the sale or purchase of goods on behalf of a principal. Two words in that do the work. Continuing excludes the one-off introduction. Goods excludes services entirely, which is why an agent selling software licences or insurance may fall outside the Regulations while an agent selling footwear falls squarely inside them. Textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods are goods, so an agency in this trade is almost always covered, whatever the contract says about it.

Which one applies, and how much it is worth. Compensation is the default: it applies unless the agency contract expressly provides for an indemnity. An indemnity is limited to one year's remuneration, averaged over the preceding five years. Compensation carries no such limit in the Regulations, and in English law it is valued as the price a hypothetical purchaser would have paid for the agency at the moment it ended, following the House of Lords decision in Lonsdale. Which of the two is better depends entirely on the agency, and it is decided when the contract is drafted rather than when it ends.

Waiting. The entitlement to an indemnity or compensation is lost if the agent does not notify the principal, within one year of termination, that they intend to pursue it. The notification is not a claim and does not require a lawyer's letter to exist — but it does have to happen. Agents routinely spend the first months after a termination hoping the relationship can be repaired, then take advice at fourteen months and discover the right has gone. If an agency of yours has ended, that date matters more than anything else on this page.

Not below the statutory minimum. The Regulations set one month in the first year, two months in the second and three months in the third and subsequent years, and a term shortening those periods is ineffective to the agent's detriment. Longer notice can be agreed. The same non-derogation principle covers the dates by which commission falls due, which is no later than the last day of the month following the quarter in which it became payable, and the right of either party to a signed written statement of the agency terms on request.

Only within limits, and only if it is in writing. A restraint of trade clause is valid to the extent that it relates to the geographical area, the group of customers and the kind of goods covered by the agency, and it cannot bind for more than two years after termination however it is drafted. A five-year restraint is not a five-year restraint; the part beyond two years is simply ineffective. It is worth reading any clause of this kind against those three limits before assuming it stops you working.

No, and the line is kept deliberately clear. What is on this page is the framework an agency in goods operates inside, stated because both principals and agents enter these relationships without being told it exists. How it applies to a particular contract, a particular termination or a particular claim is legal advice, and that requires a qualified lawyer. If you are at the point of valuing a claim or responding to one, instruct one — and note the one-year notification date before you do anything else.