§ 44. Delivery in instalments

If the goods are to be delivered in instalments and there is a breach of contract (kontraktbrudd) in one of them, you can cancel that particular delivery under the ordinary rules. You can also cancel future deliveries if the breach gives reason to believe there will be problems again. And you can cancel earlier and later deliveries that make no sense on their own — for example a series that belongs together.

The Sale of Goods Act (Kjøpsloven)·LOV-1988-05-13-27

Machine-translated from Norwegian. The Norwegian text is the one that applies. Read the original in Norwegian.Norsk English العربية Polski Українська

The text of the law (unofficial translation)

(1) If the seller (selger) is to deliver in instalments and there is a breach of contract in a single partial delivery, the buyer (kjøper) may cancel the purchase (heving) for that delivery under the rules on cancellation of the purchase.

(2) If the breach of contract gives the buyer good reason to expect that breaches of contract will occur that will give a right to cancel for later deliveries, he may on this basis cancel the purchase for such deliveries, provided this is done within a reasonable time.

(3) If the buyer cancels the purchase for a single delivery, he may at the same time cancel the purchase for earlier or later deliveries which, because of the connection between the deliveries, cannot be used for purposes the parties assumed at the time the contract was made.

Source: Lovdata — Kjøpsloven (the Sale of Goods Act) § 44

What does this mean?

Many agreements involve delivery (levering) over time — subscriptions, monthly deliveries, a larger order delivered in batches. The law has special rules for this.

Cancelling one delivery (first paragraph): If a single delivery is too late or has a material defect (mangel), you can cancel just that one. You keep the rest of the agreement.

Cancelling future deliveries (second paragraph): If the breach gives you "good reason" to believe there will be problems later as well, you can say no thanks to future deliveries. You must act "within a reasonable time". Example: the supplier delivers three months late in January, again in February, and you see no improvement — you can say: "I am withdrawing from the agreement, I do not want any more."

Earlier and later deliveries that are connected (third paragraph): If you cancel one delivery, you can also cancel earlier or later deliveries that make no sense without it. Example: a series of books where volume 3 is missing — you can cancel the whole series if it makes no sense with only 1, 2, 4 and 5.

Examples

Lars runs a small carpentry workshop and has an agreement for monthly delivery of oak. The third delivery arrives a month late, the fourth delivery is of poor quality. The fifth delivery looks like it will be late again. Under § 44 (2), Lars can cancel the purchase for future deliveries — the breaches give reason to believe the problems will continue. He gives written notice and finds a new supplier.

Eva has ordered a collector's series of 10 volumes. Volumes 1-5 are perfect. Volume 6 has printing errors and is unusable. After attempts at repair of the defect (retting), a flawless volume 6 is not delivered. Eva can cancel the purchase for volume 6 under § 44 (1). She can also cancel the whole series under § 44 (3) if it makes no sense without volume 6 — it is a collector's work where the connection matters.

Common mistakes

  1. Cancelling the whole agreement because of one bad delivery without considering § 44
  2. Waiting too long to cancel future deliveries — you must act within a reasonable time
  3. Forgetting that the "connected" rule requires the connection to have been assumed from the start

What should you do?

If there are problems with subscriptions or series contracts:

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