The Buyer's Right to Require Reimbursement for Repair Costs of Defective Goods under the CISG, the CESL, and Estonian Law

• Author: Arsi Pavelts, Karin Sein
• Pages: 147-158

147

JURIDICA INTERNATIONAL 21/2014

Arsi Pavelts Karin Sein

Magister artium Docent of Civil Law

Attorney-at-law University of Tartu

Law Off‌i ce VARUL

The Buyer’s Right to Require

Reimbursement for Repair

Costs of Defective Goods under

the CISG, the CESL, and

Estonian Law

1. Introduction

Under what conditions the buyer has a right to require reimbursement for repair costs incurred through

lack of conformity of goods is undoubtedly a central issue in sales law. The analysis in this article compares

the conditions under which the buyer’s right to require reimbursement for repair costs arises under the

terms of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (or ‘CISG’)*1, the

proposed common European sales law (CESL)*2, and the Estonian sales law (the Law of Obligations Act,

hereinafter referred to as the LOA)*3, along with how the seller’s interest in minimising costs and his right

to secondary performance are ensured. The authors seek to highlight considerable dogmatic and practical

differences in the solutions provided by the above-mentioned regulations, focusing on the balance of obliga-

tions and rights between the buyer and seller under B2B contracts.

The authors present a hypothesis that the institution of cure and that of granting of additional time dif-

fer fundamentally in how they function in balancing the interests of the seller and buyer. Cure prioritises

the buyer’s interests and leaves the risk of communication to be borne by the seller. The institute of granting

additional time, in contrast, gives priority to a claim for performance, and shifting from this claim to a claim

for repair costs usually requires prior active intervention by the buyer.

1 RT II 1993, 21/22, 52 (in Estonian).

2 Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a Common European Sales Law,

COM(2011) 635 f‌i nal. Available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2011:0635:FIN:en:PDF

(most recently accessed on 17.2.2014).

3 Võlaõigusseadus. – RT I 2001, 81, 487; RT I, 29.11.2013, 1 (in Estonian).

http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/JI.2014.21.13