Miller Magazine Issue: 118 October 2019

88 MILLER / OCTOBER 2019 Interlegal represented the buyer under CIF contract for sale of seeds, governed by FOSFA Contract No. 11 – according to the quality certificate provided by the seller, the Goods appeared to be contaminated by alive insects, despite the fact that contractual quality specification directly provided for absence of alive insects. That was unpleasant commencement of a complex and multifaceted case shared with us in detail by Ekaterina Gadetskaya, Senior Lawyer of Interlegal. Quality dispute: How proper negotiations allow to keep the contract and commercial relations Ekaterina Gadetskaya Senior Associate Interlegal, Ukraine TASK The buyer notified immediately the seller on the breach of Contract by the latter, while the seller denied it and insisted that fumiga- tion would eliminate contamination before the Goods arrive to the discharge port. Most of all the buyer was concerned about large concentration of alive insects in the Goods, lack of the fumigant for disinfection, as well as strict phytosanitary rules of the importing country which might result in pro- hibition of import of the allegedly defective Goods. The situation was complicated by the fact that the seller failed to issue invoice due to the delay in obtaining quality analysis results, which were supposed to determine applica- tion of allowances. Meanwhile the Vessel with