| See also: | UNCITRAL Digest cases plus added cases Above plus annotations and added material |
The UNCITRAL Digest of case law on the United
Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods [*]
A/CN.9/SER.C/DIGEST/CISG/21 [8 June 2004].
Reproduced with the permission of UNCITRAL.
| ARTICLE 21
(1) A late acceptance is nevertheless effective as an acceptance if without delay the offeror orally so informs the offeree or dispatches a notice to that effect. (2) If a letter or other writing containing a late acceptance shows that it has been sent in such circumstances that if its transmission had been normal it would have reached the offeror in due time, the late acceptance is effective as an acceptance unless, without delay, the offeror orally informs the offeree that he considers his offer as having lapsed or dispatches a notice to that effect. |
DIGEST OF ARTICLE 21 CASE LAW
1. Article 21 provides that a late acceptance is nevertheless effective if the conditions set out in paragraphs (1) or (2) are satisfied. Article 18(2) requires that an acceptance reach the offeror within the time period calculated as provided by that paragraph and article 20. Article 24 defines when a revocation "reaches" the offeree.
2. Paragraph (1) provides that a late acceptance is effective if an offeror notifies the offeree without delay that the acceptance is effective.[1]
3. Paragraph (2) provides that a communication that would normally have reached the offeror within the time period fixed for acceptance is effective notwithstanding that it reaches the offeror after that period expires unless the offeror notifies the offeree without delay that he considers the offer to have lapsed. There are no reported cases applying paragraph (2).
FOOTNOTES
* The present text was prepared using the full text of the decisions cited in the Case Law on UNCITRAL Texts (CLOUT) abstracts and other citations listed in the footnotes. The abstracts are intended to serve only as summaries of the underlying decisions and may not reflect all the points made in the digest. Readers are advised to consult the full texts of the listed court and arbitral decisions rather than relying solely on the CLOUT abstracts.
[Citations to cisgw3 case presentations have been substituted [in brackets] for the case citations provided in the UNCITRAL Digest. This substitution has been made to facilitate online access to CLOUT abstracts, original texts of court and arbitral decisions, and full text English translations of these texts (available in most but not all cases). For citations UNCITRAL had used, go to <http://www.uncitral.org/english/clout/digest_cisg_e.htm>.]
1. [ICC Court of Arbitration case No. 7844 of 1994, available online at <http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/cases/947844i1.html>] (reference to Austrian law and Convention for proposition that a late acceptance would not be effective unless the offeror notified offeree without delay that the acceptance is effective).
Pace Law School Institute of International Commercial Law - Last updated July 21, 2005