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The court proceedings that lead to this appellate decision were initiated by the Chilean company Englander Nuss S.A. (seller) seeking payment of an outstanding contract price from the Argentine company Montecoman S.A. (buyer).

The present court decision mostly deals with the effects of the Argentine emergency legislation for the protection of the local currency that was in force between 2002 and 2017 (Ley No. 25.561 and Decreto No. 214/02) on the payment claim brought. This emergency legislation inter alia provided for a mandatory conversion of claims against Argentine debtors that were denominated in a foreign currency (here: in USD) into Argentine currency (pesos), the so-called “pesification”. However, Art. 1(e) of the Decreto No. 410/02 contained an exception for “[l]as obligaciones del sector público y privado de dar sumas de dinero en moneda extranjera para cuyo cumplimiento resulte aplicable la ley extranjera” (obligations from the public and private sector to pay sums of money in a foreign currency if the obligation results from an applicable foreign law).

Against this background, the Court of Appeal held that the CISG applied to the parties’ sales contract, but found that the CISG in its Art. 54 is silent on the currency of the payment. As the parties' CISG contract included a FOB delivery term, the Court found that delivery had accordingly to be made by the seller in Chile, and that such a case fell under the exception in Art. 1(e) of the Argentine Decreto No. 410/02. Accordingly, Englander Nuss S.A.'s USD payment claim escaped the “pesification”.