Gary ran a Petrol Station. He ran the station under an agency agreement with a petrol company. They terminated his agency. This was because so tight did they squeeze his retail margins on both petrol and shop goods at the station, that he became unable to meet their financial thresholds and make sufficient staff payments to keep the station open for the required number of hours.

The company made him an agent, because it wished to avoid paying him any contractual compensation for loss of the business by having to leave the station.

FK invoked the new European Commission Agent Rules and said that Gary Parks was entitled to substantial compensation.

This was new law in England, and relatively new in the rest of Europe (the regulations only came into force in the year 2000) so it went to the Court of Appeal.

The Judge didn't make much sense, because he made a finding that Gary did meet the criteria to be defined as a commercial agent and be entitled to compensation, but yet he declared he was not such an agent.

The case should have gone on to the House of Lords, but Gary wanted to get on with his life and give up the fight. That was up to him. Meantime, the case has set a legal precedent and has been discussed at many lawyers' seminars since, because it didn't quite clarify the law enough!