Court decisions dealing with third-party e-mail fraud under the CISG

In international commercial practice, cases of e-mail fraud have become more and more frequent in recent years. While the factual patterns vary, such cases typically involve the buyer paying the contract price to third-party fraudster's bank account.

Decisions of this kind decided under the CISG are listed below in descending chronological order, with the newest decision being listed at the top.

Ukranian corn case
Sąd Arbitrażowy przy Krajowej Izbie Gospodarczej w Warszawie (SAKIG) (Court of Arbitration at the Polish Chamber of Commerce in Warsaw)
Arbitration, 26 January 2024 – SA 45/23, CISG-online 7972

Wiesenhof International GmbH v. Estonian Meat House OÜ
Tartu Maakohus (County Court Tartu)
Estonia, 18 October 2023 – 2-22-11320, CISG-online 6648

[...] v. Luka Food d.o.o.
Vrhovni kasacioni sud/Врховни касациони суд (Serbian Supreme Court)
Serbia, 22 April 2021 – 135/2021, CISG-online 6859

Haniberia Espana S.L. v. Kunshan Huayue Textile and Garment Co., Ltd. et al.
昆山市人民法院 (People's Court Kunshan, Jiangsu Province)
China, 15 April 2019 – (2018) Su0583 No. 1068, CISG-online 4789

EXTRUFLEX GmbH v. SLOVPOLIGON, spol. s r.o.
Okresný súd Komarno (District Court Komarno)
Slovak Republic, 18 September 2018 – 5Cb/73/2017, CISG-online 6176

Mees van den Brink Haaksbergen B.V. v. SAS (Shanghai) Industrial & Trading Co. Ltd.
Gerechtshof Arnhem-Leeuwarden (Court of Appeal Arnhem-Leeuwarden)
Netherlands, 03 October 2017 – 200.187.131, CISG-online 2920

Kalpesh Enterprise LLC v. Fintex Chemie s.r.o.
Rechtbank Den Haag (District Court The Hague)
Netherlands, 27 May 2015 – C/09/475774 / HA ZA 14-1201, CISG-online 5309

Writings on the topic under the CISG include:

Anna Kretková, 'Cyberattacks as grounds for liability exclusion in international sales of goods under CISG', 31 Uniform Law Review/Revue de droit uniforme (Unif. L. Rev.) (2026), 1–10 [– in English]