The letters, dated Nov. 14, 2006, from AGFA’s Senior Manager of Business and Channel Development began by addressing the dealers informally, by their first names, but then grew more serious. “This letter,” it stated, “will serve as written notice of our decision to terminate the above referenced Agreement in accordance with section 14, ‘Term and Termination’…”

Section 14 refers to AGFA’s right to terminate the dealer’s contract with a 30-days notice "without cause." This provision has always been in AGFA’s contract, as it was in other major suppliers’. The “termination without cause” section of dealer contracts had been a grievance among some dealers in past years. The same provision in Kodak’s, 3M’s and DuPont’s contracts had been cited in controversial terminations. Only Fuji adopted the “model contract” that the dealers advocated and which provided longer term security and a safer basis for brand advocacy. The Fuji contract allowed terminations only “for cause” and spelled out what those causes could be.

AGFA was now exercising its legal right to terminate dealers. The termination did not cite causes, since none was legally required. However it did reference contributing macro-factors of “excess capacity, price erosion and rapid consolidation.”