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| An Italian seller and a Swiss buyer concluded a contract for the sale of furniture to be produced by the former. The buyer paid only part of the purchase price and some time later alleged that the goods did not conform with the contract. It also refused the seller's offer to remedy any lack of conformity in the goods delivered.
The Court held that the contract was governed by CISG as the parties had their places of business in Contracting States (Art. 1(1)(a) CISG) and as the contract was a contract for the supply of goods to be manufactured or produced covered by CISG (Art. 3(1) CISG). The Court held that the seller's offer to remedy any defects of the goods did not amount to an acknowledgement of lack of conformity of the goods. The buyer was found to have lost the right to rely on a lack of conformity of the goods as it neither provided evidence of defects in the goods nor of giving notice of the lack of conformity within a reasonable time. The Court held that the principle according to which the burden of proof must be met by the buyer is implicit in Arts. 38 and 39 CISG and reflects a general principle underlying CISG (Art. 7(2) CISG). The Court awarded the seller the full purchase price plus interest (Art. 78 CISG), at the statutory rate provided for by the law otherwise applicable to the contract (Italian law). |