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| A German seller and a Belgian buyer concluded a contract for the sale of fashion goods. The Court had to decide which law governed the contract.
The Court held that in principle CISG was applicable since the Belgian private international law rules referred to the law of Germany, a contracting State (Art. 1(1)(b) CISG). The seller argued, however, that CISG had been expressly excluded by a clause contained in its standard terms. It its view the standard terms had become part of the contract since they were referred to in a letter of confirmation sent by the seller to the buyer after the conclusion of the contract and the buyer had not objected to the letter of confirmation. The Court held that the question of the inclusion of the seller's standard terms in the contract was to be decided under German law, which was the domestic law applicable to the contract according to the Belgian private international law rules. Under German law CISG would be validly excluded, were it ascertained that the exclusion clause was referred to in a letter of confirmation which the buyer received but did not object to. |