Potential breach of service agreement
Thread poster: Aurélie Gargne
Aurélie Gargne
Aurélie Gargne
France
Local time: 03:35
English to French
May 23, 2023

Hello,

As freelancers, we do provide our services to agencies and clients and are bound to service agreements. Of course, we want to work with different agencies and clients and expand our business. However, how to deal with specific cases where there may be a potential breach of service agreement?

Here's the situation for which i need your advice:

I've been working for years with agency A for their customer (which is one of the biggest translation s
... See more
Hello,

As freelancers, we do provide our services to agencies and clients and are bound to service agreements. Of course, we want to work with different agencies and clients and expand our business. However, how to deal with specific cases where there may be a potential breach of service agreement?

Here's the situation for which i need your advice:

I've been working for years with agency A for their customer (which is one of the biggest translation service provider) and for final client Y. In service agreement I signed with this agency, it's written i cannot contact directly or indirectly their customers and clients.
Last month, i was contacted by agency B, did a translation test successfully and signed service agreement. This agency told me last week i'll be working on projects for final client Z. At this point, that sounds fine. But when vendor manager sent me credentials for their platform, i found out that they're working for the same customer as agency A (the one mentioned above as one of the biggest translation service provider).

Is this case a potential breach of service agreement with agency A? If so, what should i do?

Thanks for your help!
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Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 02:35
Danish to English
+ ...
No May 23, 2023

You will not be contacting Y, so I don't see any breach. It is not your choice that Y has decided to give some business to B and not just A, and whether it is you or someone else who works on the Y tasks via B does not change anything for A, which does not seem to have an exclusive contract with Y.

I would, however, keep this fact strictly confidential to avoid any misunderstandings and problems.


Tomasz Sienicki
Arianne Farah
Christopher Schröder
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
philgoddard
Laura Kingdon
 
Morano El-Kholy
Morano El-Kholy  Identity Verified
Egypt
Local time: 04:35
Member (2011)
English to Arabic
+ ...
You aren't breaching any agreements☺️ May 23, 2023

Hello Aurelie,

You aren't breaching any agreements by working with agency B for those specific reasons:

1- You are working under the umbrella of agency B. Thus, you haven't contacted directly or indirectly any possible clients.

2- It is very possible that this same client may have diversified his/her work loads to several agencies including agency A and B or have altogether ceased to collaborate with agency A.

This is what I can possibly imag
... See more
Hello Aurelie,

You aren't breaching any agreements by working with agency B for those specific reasons:

1- You are working under the umbrella of agency B. Thus, you haven't contacted directly or indirectly any possible clients.

2- It is very possible that this same client may have diversified his/her work loads to several agencies including agency A and B or have altogether ceased to collaborate with agency A.

This is what I can possibly imagine.
😊
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Aurélie Gargne
Thomas T. Frost
Christopher Schröder
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Yaotl Altan
 
Aurélie Gargne
Aurélie Gargne
France
Local time: 03:35
English to French
TOPIC STARTER
Problem not with Y May 23, 2023

Thomas T. Frost wrote:

You will not be contacting Y, so I don't see any breach. It is not your choice that Y has decided to give some business to B and not just A, and whether it is you or someone else who works on the Y tasks via B does not change anything for A, which does not seem to have an exclusive contract with Y.

I would, however, keep this fact strictly confidential to avoid any misunderstandings and problems.


Actually problem isn't with final client Y, but with agency A and B's customer/partner as it's the same.


 
Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 02:35
Danish to English
+ ...
Still okay May 23, 2023

Aurélie Gargne wrote:
Actually problem isn't with final client Y, but with agency A and B's customer/partner as it's the same.


I don't see why that should be a problem. You are not choosing to contact A's clients and won't take any steps to contact them. How that middle entity chooses to channel their tasks to different providers is not your choice and you haven't taken any steps to breach your agreement.


Aurélie Gargne
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Morano El-Kholy
philgoddard
abe(L)solano
 
Aurélie Gargne
Aurélie Gargne
France
Local time: 03:35
English to French
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks for your advice May 23, 2023

Thank you for your answers and advice Thomas and Morano.

Morano El-Kholy
 


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Potential breach of service agreement







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