The judgment regards liability of the carrier for non-payment of an invoice. The plaintiff is the buyer, party to a sales contract. The defendant is an independent carrier who picked up and transported the goods from the seller to the buyer, on the buyer’s request. There is no contractual relationship between the parties in the present case. Therefore, the plaintiff cannot invoke its general conditions imprinted on the invoice; neither can the plaintiff rely on Art. 5 Brussels I Regulation, nor on Art. 31 CMR-Convention. All these grounds of jurisdiction presume a contractual relationship with the defendant.
The Commercial Court does not have international jurisdiction in this matter.