A German seller and a Dutch buyer entered into a contract for the sale of cucumbers. A dispute arose between the parties concerning the payment of a part of the price. The seller brought an action claiming the remaining purchase price, damages, and the legal fees incurred during the legal proceeding as well.
The First Instance Court decided in favour of the seller, while the Appellate Court held that the claim was inadmissible, since the German court had no international jurisdiction to hear the case.
The Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision. While acknowledging that, if the dispute was governed by CISG, the jurisdiction of the German Court could be justified on the basis of Art. 5(1) of the 1968 Brussels Convention on Jurisdiction and Enforcement in combination with Art. 57(1) CISG, the Court held that the contract in question was not a sales contract but a distributorship contract and therefore not governed by CISG.
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