Merchants and Commercial Activities
Merchants and Commercial Activities
Definitions.
A person is considered a merchant even if he does not perform the activity in person
it is enough if he performs it through an employee or a manager, the laters are not
considered merchants.
A craftsman (like a potter) الحرفيis the person pursuing an occupation requiring his
skills and training, particularly manual skills combined with the knowledge of the
principles of art. He is not considered a merchant provided the number of the
craftsmen working together does not exceed 15 persons.
Qualifications of merchants
Age: 18 years it the age when a person starts to be capable in the eyes of law to of
binding himself.
o Sometimes the court declares someone as a minor although he is of full age,
the raison behinds this lies in the fact that he is incapable of managing his
own affairs; in such a case a curator (keeper) is appointed.
Insane جنون: is the one who is not able to distinguish between right
and bad conduct, and cannot comprehend the nature and
consequences of his acts(lacks raison ,memory and intelligence )
Lunatic عته: lost of understanding due to sickness or accident.
Prodigal س فيه: this is the case of a person with bad conduct of
extravagant habits (spending money in an irresponsible way)
Marriage : married women was restricted from practicing commerce, this rule was
abrogated الغيتin 1994( this is a good example on how the legal rule is permanent
but not eternal and thus can be amended) .
Freedom of trade:
This is the principle , on it there are several restrictions:
Unfair competition: takes the forms of :
o Dishonest or fraudulent rivalry المنافسة غ ير المش روعةin trade and
commerce.
o Imitation of goods or counterfeiting the name, size ….in a way that
mislead the general public or deceive the ordinary unaware
purchaser.
Absolute Restrictions imposed by law: drug traffic, when the state reserves
to itself the right to deal exclusively with some products like tobacco for
example.
Penalties:
o the merchant who fails to fulfill the obligation of
registration shall loose all the benefits of the privileges
given to him by law:
Using his commercial books as a tool of
evidence.
To call for a composition in bankruptcy.
o Is subjected to a fine .
o Any false information leads to a fine and/or an
imprisonment from 1 to 6 months.
B) Commercial books:
A merchant should hold commercial books which clearly indicate his exact
financial standing well as his loss and credit accounts.
o He should at least keep:
A Journal or a Day-book: A day by day record, if he is
prevented to do so due to the nature of his work he should
at least relate monthly the result of his daily operations
with the condition of keeping all the documents which
make possible the checking of the regularity of these
operations.
An Inventory book: an annual book where all the elements
needed to extract, at the end of each financial year, an
annual balance sheet and the profit and loss account .
Commercial books should be kept in chronological order,
free from spaces, erasions and insertions, every page
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B) Correspondences:
The merchant must also keep copies of all outgoing and incoming
correspondences and papers as telegrams invoices faxes, these
correspondences supports what is written in the commercial books.
Note: there is a need for keeping all of the commercial books and the
supporting evidence for a period of ten years.
If properly maintained commercial books constitute evidence in favor of
the merchant, and if not properly kept it will constitute evidence against
him.