Contract Law

Drafting, reviewing and negotiating commercial contracts, employment agreements and supplier terms — enforceable under Albanian law, not just translated into it.

A Contract Is Only as Good as Its Enforceability

A well-written contract in the wrong legal framework is still a weak contract. Foreign entrepreneurs operating in Albania often start from a template built for another jurisdiction — a US-style NDA, an EU-standard supplier agreement, an employment contract copied from a founder’s home country — and assume that translating it, or simply signing it as-is, is enough. It usually isn’t: governing-law clauses that don’t reflect where enforcement will actually happen, missing terms that Albanian law treats as mandatory (particularly in employment relationships), and language requirements that affect whether a document holds up in front of an Albanian court or authority.

Albania For Business Sh.p.k. drafts, reviews and negotiates commercial contracts, employment agreements and supplier terms for foreign-owned companies operating in Albania — built to be enforceable here, not just legally sound somewhere else.

CONTRACT DRAFTING & REVIEW

250 EUR / contract
fixed fee

PACKAGE OF CONTRACT DRAFTING & REVIEW INCLUDES:

  • Initial review of your existing draft, term sheet or requirements
  • Drafting or reviewing the contract, built for Albanian enforceability
  • Risk flagging — identifying unfavourable, ambiguous or unenforceable terms
  • One round of revisions based on your comments
  • A plain-English summary of key terms and obligations
  • Advice on signing formalities — physical signature, e-signature or notarisation, where required
  • Albanian-language version prepared where legally required for enforceability
Fixed fee per standard commercial contract of typical length and complexity (up to approximately 10 pages, one counterparty). Multi-party agreements, high-value transactions, and contracts requiring extended negotiation are scoped and quoted individually.

Types of Contracts We Handle

  • Commercial and supplier agreements — purchase terms, service agreements, framework contracts.
  • Distribution and agency agreements — for foreign brands appointing an Albanian distributor, reseller or agent.
  • Employment contracts — compliant with Albanian labour law minimums, whatever your broader HR framework looks like.
  • NDAs and confidentiality agreements — before sharing sensitive information with a counterparty, investor or hire.
  • Service agreements and consultancy contracts — for both sides of the relationship.
  • Lease agreements — commercial premises, including for your registered legal address if you’re not using a virtual office.
  • Website terms, privacy policies and customer-facing terms & conditions.
  • Shareholder-adjacent agreements — where these overlap with our Corporate Law service, we coordinate between the two.

Common Pitfalls in Cross-Border Contracts

  • Governing law and jurisdiction clauses that don’t match where enforcement will actually happen — a contract governed by a foreign law is not necessarily enforceable, or easily enforceable, against an Albanian counterparty.
  • Foreign-language contracts used without an Albanian version, where Albanian law or the nature of the relationship requires one for enforceability or regulatory purposes.
  • Employment contracts copied from another jurisdiction that omit terms Albanian labour law treats as mandatory — notice periods, statutory leave, termination grounds.
  • Assuming a template that worked for a different country’s legal system transfers unchanged — most don’t, and the gaps only surface when something goes wrong.
  • Signing formalities overlooked — some contract types require notarisation or specific signing procedures to be fully enforceable or registrable.

Contract Review, Step by Step

  1. Submit your draft, term sheet, or a description of what you need.
  2. Initial review & risk flagging — we identify unfavourable, ambiguous, missing or unenforceable terms.
  3. Drafting or revisions — the contract is drafted from scratch or amended to address what we’ve flagged.
  4. Client review & feedback round — you review our draft and send comments; one round is included in the package.
  5. Final version & signing guidance — you receive the final contract with advice on signing formalities and any Albanian-language requirements.

What We Need From You

  • The contract itself, if one exists, or a description of the deal/relationship if we’re drafting from scratch.
  • The other party’s details and, where relevant, their jurisdiction.
  • Any commercial terms already agreed (price, duration, exclusivity, termination conditions).
  • Your priorities — what matters most to protect, and where you have flexibility to negotiate.
  • Your timeline, particularly if signing is tied to a specific date or event.

Fee Schedule — Additional & Ongoing Services

Beyond the fixed package above, the following services are priced individually. Your adviser confirms an exact quotation once your structure, nationality and banking preference are known.

Service Indicative Fee
Contract drafting or review — standard contract (as above) €250 fixed fee
Employment contract drafting from €150
NDA / confidentiality agreement from €120
Distribution or agency agreement from €350
Website terms & conditions / privacy policy from €200
Complex or high-value contract (multi-party, extended negotiation) quoted individually, typically hourly
Additional revision round (beyond the one included) from €80
Contract negotiation support (per hour) from €100 / hour
Certified bilingual translation of a contract from €40 / page
⚠ Practical note

A contract generated from a foreign template — or from a general-purpose AI tool without local review — will usually read like a contract. Whether it actually protects you under Albanian law is a different question, and the gap between the two only becomes visible when something goes wrong: a dispute, a termination, an attempt to enforce a payment term. Having a contract reviewed before signing is materially cheaper than trying to fix or enforce a defective one afterward.

Frequently Asked Questions

Not always, but it depends on the contract type and where it needs to be enforced or registered. Some contracts and official filings require an Albanian-language version; for others, a bilingual document or an English original with a certified translation on hand is sufficient. We advise on what’s needed for your specific contract.

You can use it as a starting point, but it shouldn’t be signed unchanged. Templates built for another legal system often carry governing-law assumptions, missing mandatory terms, or enforcement mechanisms that don’t translate directly into Albanian law. We review and adapt templates rather than starting from zero where that’s more efficient.

It depends on where enforcement is realistically likely to happen and where the counterparty’s assets are. Choosing a foreign governing law doesn’t always help if enforcement ultimately needs to happen in Albania — we advise on the practical implications, not just the theoretical options.

Yes. Employment contracts are reviewed against Albanian labour law minimums — notice periods, statutory leave, termination grounds — regardless of what your broader HR framework or employee handbook says.

The same principles apply if performance, assets, or enforcement will realistically touch Albania. If the relationship has no meaningful connection to Albania, this may not be the right jurisdiction to focus the contract on — we’ll tell you if that’s the case.

Yes — reviewing a counterparty’s draft, or a contract prepared by another adviser, is one of our most common engagements. We flag what’s missing, what’s unfavourable, and what won’t hold up, then propose specific changes.

A standard commercial contract is usually turned around within a few business days. More complex or multi-party agreements, or contracts requiring extended negotiation with a counterparty, take longer — we give a specific estimate once we’ve seen the document.

We can support negotiation directly — reviewing counter-proposals, drafting responses, and advising on where to hold firm versus where to concede — billed hourly beyond the included review, since negotiation scope varies considerably by deal.