The Commercial Court is a unique court: those who judge are traders, elected and unpaid. The idea is that commercial practices are best judged by those who engage in them.
Two commercial courts shape the Antibes case file. First, Paris, by virtue of the jurisdiction clause in the franchise agreement: it was there that McDonald's brought proceedings and obtained, on 18 May 1998, termination and eviction — a decision that the Paris Court of Appeal partly reversed two years later. Second, Antibes, which in 2001 ordered the compulsory liquidation of the three operating companies.
The jurisdiction clause is not a detail: it obliges an operator from the Alpes-Maritimes to litigate in Paris, with all that this entails in terms of costs and distance.