Art. 49 CISG

(1) The buyer may declare the contract avoided:

(a) if the failure by the seller to perform any of his obligations under the contract or this Convention amounts to a fundamental breach of contract; or

(b) in case of non-delivery, if the seller does not deliver the goods within the additional period of time fixed by the buyer in accordance with paragraph (1) of article 47 or declares that he will not deliver within the period so fixed.

(2) However, in cases where the seller has delivered the goods, the buyer loses the right to declare the contract avoided unless he does so:

(a) in respect of late delivery, within a reasonable time after he has become aware that delivery has been made;

(b) in respect of any breach other than late delivery, within a reasonable time:

(i) after he knew or ought to have known of the breach;

(ii) after the expiration of any additional period of time fixed by the buyer in accordance with paragraph (1) of article 47, or after the seller has declared that he will not perform his obligations within such an additional period; or

(iii) after the expiration of any additional period of time indicated by the seller in accordance with paragraph (2) of article 48, or after the buyer has declared that he will not accept performance.

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Secretariat Commentary

The Secretariat Commentary on Art. 45 of the 1978 New York Draft, predecessor to Art. 49 CISG, gives insight into the drafters' unterstanding on the eve of the 1980 Vienna Diplomatic Conference.

Commentary on the Draft Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, prepared by the Secretariat (UN Doc. A/CONF.97/5), in: United Nations Conference on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, Vienna, 10 March – 11 April 1980, Official Records: Documents of the Conference and Summary Records of the Plenary Meetings and of the Meetings of the Main Committees, New York: United Nations (1991), pp. 14 et seq., at pp. 41—42

CISG-AC Opinion regarding Art. 49 CISG

CISG-AC Opinion No. 5 ‘The Buyer's Right to Avoid the Contract in Case of Non-conforming Goods or Documents’ (Rapporteur: Ingeborg Schwenzer), adopted by the CISG Advisory Council at its 9th meeting in Philadelphia (USA) in 2005

Overview of case law on Art. 49 CISG: UNCITRAL Digest

The UNCITRAL Digest on the CISG can be used as a starting point to discover the relevant case law on this article.

2016 UNCITRAL Digest of case law on Art. 49 CISG

Interpretation of Art. 49 CISG: Selected issues discussed in case law

Relationship between seller's right to cure (Art. 48 CISG) and buyer's right to avoid the contract (Art. 49 CISG)

To gain insight how case law interprets whether the buyer's right to avoid the contract is limited by the seller's right to cure under Art. 48 CISG see the page on the relationship between the seller's right to cure (Art. 48 CISG) and the buyer's right to avoid the contract (Art. 49 CISG).

Declaration of contract avoidance (Art. 49(1) CISG)

see Article 26 CISG