Agency Relationships

代理關系在ACCA F4的企業與商法中是一項重要的知識點，具體內容如下：

1. 代理的定義：

Agency— the authority of one person (an agent) to make binding commitments with third parties for someone else (the principal).

代理就是授權某人或代理商和第三方簽訂約束性協議。

2. 代理關系的形成 Formation

Agency relationships can arise:

formally (e.g. through signed, sealed powers of attorney or written agency agreements); or

less formally (e.g. through employment arrangements).

代理關系又分為正式和非正式的

3. 案例 Examples

The concept of agency underpins much of daily commercial life. For example, retail workers are the agents of their employers for the purposes of selling the goods in trade.

代理行為在日常生活中極為常見，例如，售貨員就是被雇主雇來銷售貨物的代理人。

Company directors are agents of the companies they serve, collectively as a board of directors and individually if they are appointed as executive directors. They have authority to run the business on a day-to-day basis.

公司的執行董事就是他所在公司的代理人，他們被授權運行公司的日常事務。

Members of a business partnership are one another's agents—and therefore also one another's principals. The acts of a partner in the usual way of business bind all the others as a firm.

If the agent acts improperly, the principal will usually be bound to honour the commitment with the third party, but will be able to claim compensation from the agent for his breach of duty.

在商業合伙關系中，當代理人行為不當時，委托人就要對第三方兌現承諾，但是委托人可以追究其代理人的責任。

舉個例子：

Illustration Agents and Principals

Petr appoints Andrei to act as agent for Petr to sell goods made by Petr, at prices specified by Petr. In breach of this arrangement, Andrei arranges to sell some of the goods to Tomas at a discount on the specified price.

The legal position will be that:

Petr must honour the arrangement with Tomas to supply the goods at the discounted price; and

Andrei will be accountable to Petr, because he has not followed Petr's instructions.

There are two key areas for consideration:

1. The nature of the actual or notional authority (power) of the agent to involve his principal in contracts; and

2. The mutual rights and duties of the agent and principal, and their liabilities to third parties.