Case number: 55
Article number: sales convention / 1(1)(b); 78
Thessaurs issue:
Country of decision: Switzerland
Year of decision: 1991
Type of decision: Judicial decision

Case 55: CISG 1(1)(b); 78
Switzerland, Canton of Ticino: Pretore della giurisdizione di Locarno Campagna 15 December 1991
Excerpts published in German: Schweizerische Zeitschrift f�r internationales und europ„isches Recht (SZIER) 1993, 665

The plaintiff, a French seller, claimed the payment of the price of goods, which the defendant, a Swiss buyer, had failed to pay,
plus interest at the rate of 6% from July 1990, the time of conclusion of the contract. The defendant acknowledged the debt in
the course of the proceedings but argued that interest was payable only from August 1991, the time the defendant was notified
of the plaintiff's refusal to accept a returned sample as payment.

Although the plaintiff invoked Swiss law, the court, applying article 118 of the Swiss Federal Act of Private International Law
and article 3 of the Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to International Sales Contracts on Movables of 15 June 1955,
held that CISG was applicable as the applicable French law. The court granted the plaintiff interest on the sum owed from the
time of the conclusion of the contract since article 78 CISG did not refer to any formal or informal notice of default. In order to
determine the interest rate, the court applied French law, since CISG does not provide for a specific interest rate, and granted
interest at the rate of 6%, as requested by the plaintiff, on the ground that it was lower than the statutory interest rate under
French law.