EUPillar NV Frans Bijttebier-Bouckaert v. BV Nooteboom Internationaal - 2003/AR/2603

Summary

In international trade, it is not necessary that a party to a contract confirms its general invoice conditions in, e.g., an order confirmation, a letter accompanying the invoice, a reminder or previous proceedings – if this party expressly notified the other party of these general conditions in the original invoice in a language known to him. International trade requires the existence of general conditions that further develop the agreement between the parties. It is common practice to further detail the “payment” and the “collection of overdue invoices and the consequences of a default on payment” in the general conditions on the invoice. It is up to the other contracting party to contest these general conditions if he does not want to continue the commercial relationship under the conditions that have been notified to him. Between the parties in this case there was a long-standing commercial relationship, as proven by the 25 invoices Bijttebier-Bouckaert NV has issued to Nooteboom International BV over the period of 22 September 2000 – 24 July 2001. The Court considers that the defendant has accepted the forum selection clause in the general conditions and thus, the jurisdiction of the Belgian courts for the collection of outstanding invoice.