|
||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
| A French buyer and a German seller concluded a contract for the delivery of meat. After receiving customers' complaints that a part of the meat was deteriorated, the buyer refused to pay and claimed that it had the right to reduce the price for lack of conformity. The seller commenced an action to recover the purchase price.
The Court affirmed its jurisdiction pursuant to Art. 5(1) of the EC Convention on Jurisdiction and Enforcement of Judgement in Civil and Commercial Matters (Brussels 1968) and Art. 57(1)(a) CISG. In absence of a contrary agreement between the parties, the price has to be paid at the seller's place of business, that in the case at stake was Germany. As to merits, the Court granted the seller the right to recover the full purchase price, because the buyer was not entitled to reduce the price under Art. 50 CISG. As the buyer has accepted the goods without opposition, it had to bear the burden of proving that the alleged lack of conformity existed before risk passed on the buyer (Arts. 66 and 36 CISG), i.e. before delivery of the meat to the first carrier according to Art. 31(a) CISG. The evidence brought by the buyer was considered to be insufficient. The seller was awarded interest for late payment (Art. 78 CISG) accruing from the time payment was due without need of formal request (Art. 58 CISG), at the rate determined by the applicable domestic law (German law). As to damages for late payment, the Court held that they are covered by Art. 74 CISG but that the determination of when such a delay is relevant is left to the applicable domestic law. |