Potential breach of service agreement Thread poster: Aurélie Gargne
|
|---|
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! ▲ Collapse
| | | |
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.
| | | | Morano El-Kholy 
Egypt
Local time: 21:37
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.
😊 ▲ Collapse
| | | | Aurélie Gargne
France
Local time: 20:37
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.
| | |
|
|
|
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
France
Local time: 20:37
English to French
TOPIC STARTER | Thanks for your advice | May 23, 2023 |
Thank you for your answers and advice Thomas and Morano.
| | | | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Potential breach of service agreement | Trados Studio 2022 Freelance | The leading translation software used by over 270,000 translators.
Designed with your feedback in mind, Trados Studio 2022 delivers an unrivalled, powerful desktop
and cloud solution, empowering you to work in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
More info » |
| | Protemos translation business management system | Create your account in minutes, and start working! 3-month trial for agencies, and free for freelancers!
The system lets you keep client/vendor database, with contacts and rates, manage projects and assign jobs to vendors, issue invoices, track payments, store and manage project files, generate business reports on turnover profit per client/manager etc.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
Translation news
