Originally from: The Practitioner’s Guide to the CISG - Second Edition

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§ 7.1 Overview 

Articles 53-60 of the CISG deal with the buyer’s obligations. More specifically, they deal with the buyer’s principal obligations, namely the duty to pay for the goods and the duty to take delivery of the goods. While these two requirements form the core of the buyer’s obligations under a contract, it must be remembered that the buyer is also subject to two separate duties in the sales transaction, namely to examine the goods and to notify the seller of non-conformities.

Article 53 forms the legal basis for these two principal obligations. The determination of how they are to be interpreted, in the absence of any specific contractual determination or any established trade usage or customary use (in accordance with Articles 6 and 9) is laid out in Articles 54-60.

The majority of the provisions deal with the payment of the price. Article 54 deals with ancillary obligations to ensure payment is made, and ensures that the buyer must not just make payment but must take any steps necessary to allow it to be made; i.e., the buyer has an obligation not just to write a cheque, but to ensure there are funds in the account to allow the cheque to facilitate payment to the seller.

Articles 55 and 56 assist in determining how to fix the price. Article 56 appoints net weight as the decisive factor in determining price where this price is agreed by weight, but—of course—subject to other agreements or trade practices. Article 55 allows for the determination of price by ordinary value if there is an open-price contract; this is an apparent paradox under the CISG in view of Article 14, which is dealt with below.

Articles 57 and 58 deal with the determination of time and place of payment, but always subject to specific language in the agreement determining otherwise, or reasonably discernible intent determining otherwise, or established trade customs (Articles 6, 8 and 9).