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Gratis Commissions
#1
Shalom,

I'm working as an independent guide in natural parks. The owners of hostels want me to give them a percentage of my benefits for the visitors they send me. I know this is an international commercial habit that occurs in almost every business of every type in the whole world.
The thing is that the people that send me the visitors are not specially working as tour operators; they are hostel owners that want their visitors to have a good time during their trip and if possible stay a few days more.
I think that the only thing I should pay them would be the phone call...
My view would definitely change if they would be tour operators working all day to find me hikers. I don't find it fair to pay someone 20 dollars for only making a phone call. One of their arguments is that I could also ask them a percentage for the visitors I send them.
But I don't think in that way: I will try to find the most suitable hostel for the type of person before thinking of which hostel will give me the higher percentage... and I really don't understand why I would have to ask a percentage! I'm just helping people to find a good place to stay at.

How does the Torah look at my question?

Nathan
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#2
If you are not working under a legal contract to give the hostel owners a percentage of your benefits, or if you did not promise to do so, then you are under no legal obligation to pay a gratis commission.

And from what I understand from your comments, the hostel owners are under no obligation to send their visitors to you. If they aren't happy that you don't pay them a gratis commission, they are free to try to find a different park guide for their customers.

If the hostel owners had a real legal case and it was worth it to them, they could hire an attorney to sue you. So I don't think they have a real case.
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#3
Shalom Michael,
thanks a lot for awnsering to my question...but
my question was maybe a bit diferent of the one you understood.
I was rather asking if this comission habit, that (nearly) everybody in the whole world thinks is normal, has a real sens.
For example: You ask a man in the street if he knows a good key maker and if he knows a bit of bizness, he'll come with you to the keymaker (not only to make sure you get there well, but to ask his commission to the keymaker for having sent him a client).
This little habit is spread over the whole world. Isn't it a nonsens?
What does the Talmud say about that? Is the keymaker 'hayav (presured) to pay a comission to the man who sent him a client? If yes, everybody should start asking for comissions for every little help one provides!!! If no, the system we live in is sick.
You can understand now that this question enters deeply in the economic scheme that our societies have built... Nearly everything that makes the "world go round" (as THEY say) functions like this. It's in the seven Mitzvot of the perfect capitalist!!!
Fraternel Shalom
Nathan
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#4
(07-06-2011, 06:03 PM)nathanbenyosef Wrote: This little habit is spread over the whole world. Isn't it a nonsens?
What does the Talmud say about that? Is the keymaker 'hayav (presured) to pay a comission to the man who sent him a client? If yes, everybody should start asking for comissions for every little help one provides!!! If no, the system we live in is sick.

Of course the Talmud/Torah Law does not sanction such one-sided behavior as you are describing. What you are describing borders on extortion. Extortion is prohibited for Jews, and likewise for Gentiles it is forbidden as a type of theft. (See "The Divine Code," 2nd Edition, Part 7.)

The payment of a commission is a type of business transaction, and a proper ("kosher") business transaction - including authorized work on commission - is based on a contract of mutual agreement between the transacting parties. This contract may be either written or understood.
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