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| A German buyer and an Italian seller concluded a contract for the sale of shoes. The buyer did not pay the purchase price on the assumption that it was entitled to reduce the price of the goods on account of late delivery. The seller commenced an action claiming full payment and interest. The buyer counterclaimed set-off with damages allegedly deriving from the seller's failure to deliver other pairs of shoes.
As in the first instance decision, the appellate Court did not grant the buyer the price reduction, on the ground that CISG does not provide for this remedy in the case of late delivery. The buyer was not awarded damages for loss of profit caused by the alleged nondelivery of further pairs of shoes, as it had failed to provide sufficient evidence of these losses; in order to compensated for the lost profit the buyer should have proved that its customers had insisted on purchasing the shoes the seller was to deliver and that they were not interested in any other type of shoes. The seller was finally awarded the purchase price and interest according to Art. 78 CISG. Contrary to the Court of first instance, the appellate Court held that the seller had not proved it had taken out on at its place of business a bank loan in Italian Lire at a 16,5% rate of interest. Since CISG does not determine the interest rate, the Court applied Italian law as the law otherwise applicable to the contract. It therefore awarded the statutory rate of 10%. |