A Dispute Concerning a Contract of Transportation of Goods Between a Chinese Enterprise and a European Enterprise

A Chinese enterprise entered into a contract for the transportation of goods with a European enterprise, and the contracted mode of transportation could not be resumed within a short period of time due to force majeure. The Chinese enterprise proposed a change in the mode of transportation and notified the European enterprise. The European enterprise then filed a lawsuit because of the delay in transportation. Owing to the delay in the cross-border service of the litigation documents, the Chinese enterprise had only one month after receiving the documents to prepare for the litigation. Moreover, ICDPASO found a substantial mismatch between the contents of the two language versions of the contract, with the Chinese enterprise's obligations being heavier in one of the language versions and the contract contents agreed to prevail in that language, At the same time, the European enterprise sent a court judgment by mail, which supported all of the enterprise's litigation claims, but the Chinese enterprise did not receive the court's judgment, and the law applied in the judgment sent by the European enterprise was the law of a certain European country, which did not conform to the agreement made by both parties in the terms of the dispute settlement clause.