Weens koopverdrag

The Vienna Sales Convention, officially the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, was adopted in Vienna in 1980 and has been in force in the Netherlands since 1992. It governs, among other matters, the formation of contracts, the rights and obligations of the buyer and the seller, and the consequences of breach in cross-border contracts for the sale of goods.

The Convention is significant in that it enhances legal certainty in international trade by bridging differences between national sales laws. Consequently, parties need not determine the applicable national law in each instance.

In practice, the Vienna Sales Convention is frequently stipulated to apply in international contracts unless the parties expressly agree otherwise. In the event of a dispute, counsel will examine whether the parties have their places of business in contracting states and whether the Convention has been excluded.