Also known as: proxeneta · proxenetism · broker · marriage broker · procurer
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A person who negotiates or arranges the terms of a contract between parties. The role includes facilitating agreements for the sale of goods or real estate.
Priscilla Parks operates a wholesale grain business and retains Pablo Perez as her proxenete to negotiate sales of wheat to buyers. Pablo holds himself out as skilled in grain transactions and secures a contract for 10,000 bushels. Because Pablo acts as an intermediary with specialized knowledge, Priscilla qualifies as a merchant under the UCC definition for that deal.
Patrick Phan lists his warehouse with Peak Performance, a proxenete firm. The firm produces a buyer ready and willing to pay the listed price. When Patrick refuses to close in bad faith, the proxenete still recovers its commission under the listing agreement.
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Premier Manufacturing hires Paul Peterson as proxenete to sell industrial equipment worth $12,000. Paul signs a memorandum confirming the sale on the company's behalf. The signed record satisfies the statute of frauds requirement against the seller.
Phoenix Technologies retains a proxenete to advertise energy services. The proxenete's promotional materials are challenged as misleading. The court applies intermediate scrutiny to determine whether the speech regulation is narrowly tailored to a substantial government interest.
Peter Park employs a proxenete to arrange bakery equipment sales under a state hours law. The proxenete negotiates terms that the buyer later claims violate labor statutes. The court examines whether the agreement falls within protected liberty of contract.
Philip Powell's proxenete negotiates a Cuban sugar export contract later expropriated by the government. When the buyer sues in U.S. court, the proxenete's role raises questions about judicial deference to foreign sovereign acts.
A proxenete qualifies as a merchant when the person deals in goods of the kind or holds himself out as having knowledge or skill peculiar to the practices or goods involved in the transaction.
A proxenete earns a commission by producing a buyer ready, willing, and able to purchase on the seller's terms or when the contract of sale is executed, depending on the listing agreement.
A proxenete's signature on a record confirming a sale of goods for $500 or more satisfies the statute of frauds if the record indicates a contract has been made and is signed by the party to be charged or its authorized agent or broker.
The historical definition of proxenete as a contract negotiator aligns with contemporary rules treating brokers as intermediaries who may attribute merchant status or satisfy writing requirements under the UCC and real estate commission doctrines.
…might run afoul of § 10 (b).[^maj-7] The SEC took an important step in the development of § 10 (b) when it held that a broker-dealer and his firm violated that section by selling securities on the basis of undisclosed information obtained from a director of the issuer corporation who was also a registered…