Case number and/or case name
Konings NV v. S.L. Aragonesa de compuestos termoplasticos (act juice & world) - A.R.06/1484 - Kh. Hasselt, 17 May 2006
Details of the court
Belgium, First Instance
Articles referred to by the court
Brussels I
Article 23
Paragraph 1
SubParagraph a
Paragraph 1
SubParagraph b
Paragraph 1
SubParagraph c
Date of the judgement
16 May 2006
CJEU's case law cited by the court
Summary
The defendant failed to enter an appearance, but since the defendant is domiciled in a Member State (Spain), the court proceeds to examine its jurisdiction ex officio (cf. Art. 26(1)).
Parties are bound by choice of forum clauses in general conditions that also governed their previous transactions. If parties are regularly confronted with the same conditions, they are assumed to have knowledge of the choice of forum clause. If they never protested against it, they are assumed to have consented.
Since English is the ‘lingua franca’ of Europe, a party is in any event in an international sale bound by general conditions in this language in an invoice.
Short critique
The Court applies certain criteria developed for the application of art. 23(1)(b) Brussels I to forum selection clause included in general terms and conditions. See report for more details on the trends in Belgian case law in this regard.