Commercial contracts are established to regulate commercial relationships between self-employed and companies with other self-employed or companies.

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Let’s go over the main characteristics, its content and the differences between a commercial contract and an employment contract, which can sometimes be confused.

Characteristics

The main characteristics of a commercial contract are the following:

• Consent: both parties must have the capacity to contract and accept it freely, as it will entail the assumption of certain obligations by each of the parties.
• Bilaterality (or multilaterality): at least 2 parties must exist.
• Object: the object of the contract must be lawful and must be reflected in the contract.
• Onerous: the provision of the object of the contract must carry a counter-provision.

What does a commercial contract contain?

A commercial contract must contain at least the following parts:

• Identification of the parties: the identifying data (name, surnames, company name, NIF and address), of the companies and of the representatives or self-employed who sign the contract.
• The object of the contract: the reason why a contract is being established.
• The obligations of the parties.
• The duration of the contract.
• And the consideration and form of payment: the price, clarifying whether it includes the corresponding taxes, and how and when it will be paid.

Is a commercial contract the same as an employment contract?

No, both are totally different contracts that are used to regulate different relationships.

Let’s go over some of their main differences:

• The commercial contract is designed for relationships between companies and self-employed and the employment contract between the company or self-employed and an individual.
• The commercial contract as its name indicates has a commercial purpose and the employment contract regulates an employment relationship.
• The commercial contract is governed by commercial legislation and protects less in case of non-compliance than employment legislation which is what governs an employment contract. In addition, the level of protection of an employment worker is much greater than that of a commercial worker (in terms of vacations, minimum remuneration, weekly rest, limitation of working hours…).
• The commercial contract has freedom both to set remuneration and payment method (in money or in kind), on the other hand, in an employment contract remuneration has a minimum limit, it has to be received on a specific date…

I hope this information is useful to you ;)