International distribution agreements that match the way your goods reach market

Cross-border distribution deals usually involve more moving parts than a domestic supply arrangement. You may be dealing with exclusive territories, resale restrictions, local marketing activity, brand use, product claims, parallel import concerns and different expectations around payment or termination. If those issues are left vague, disputes can arise even when the commercial relationship starts well. A properly drafted agreement helps set out who can sell where, what standards apply, and what happens if performance drops or the relationship needs to end.

These agreements often deal with the distributor's territory, whether rights are exclusive or non-exclusive, minimum order expectations, pricing structure, payment timing, delivery responsibilities, marketing permissions, intellectual property use, confidentiality, product compliance allocation and termination rights. Some arrangements also need clauses about returns, stock on hand at exit, customer data, and post-termination brand use. The final drafting depends on the products involved, the countries in play, and how much control the supplier wants over sales channels and market conduct.

The drafting usually turns on practical details such as what products are being distributed, which countries or regions are involved, whether the distributor is exclusive, who handles local promotion, how orders are placed, and who carries risk during shipping. It can also matter whether your business shares customer or end-user information across borders, because the legal position depends on how information is handled in practice. The practical working model can be just as important as the contract wording, so operational detail is important.

Generic templates can leave gaps where the commercial model, customer journey or risk profile is more specific than the precedent assumes. However, it often misses the commercial and legal detail that matters in an international arrangement. Generic forms may not deal properly with exclusivity triggers, local compliance allocation, brand control, foreign market conduct, or what happens to unsold stock when the relationship ends. They also tend to assume a simple supplier-distributor model when the real arrangement is more layered. A tailored agreement is usually more useful where the deal spans multiple markets or involves sensitive intellectual property and channel control.

Timing depends on how quickly you can provide the commercial details and whether you need drafting from scratch or a review of an existing draft. Once engaged, we gather the key facts about the distribution model, products, territories and any sticking points already raised by the other side. We then prepare or review the agreement and flag the main legal and commercial issues for discussion. If further negotiation support or dispute work is needed later, that would be separate from this fixed-fee service.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the International Distribution Agreement service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.