The state customer won a dispute over the accrual of penalties from the entire contract price — the Supreme Court refused to review the case
The parties signed a contract for the supply of environmental monitoring systems. They were acquired for the development of an air pollution monitoring network. Since part of the goods were transferred late, the customer accrued penalties from the total price of the equipment. He wrote off half of the amount, withheld the rest from the payment.
The supplier objected: the penalty should have been calculated only from the price of the goods that were delivered late.
Three instances supported the customer:
only a complete set of equipment had consumer value. Its parts could not be used for their intended purpose, since the purpose of the purchase was to develop a surveillance network. The customer correctly calculated the penalties from the entire contract price;
the parties did not agree on the delivery in parts. There are no grounds for calculating the penalty, taking into account the amount of fulfilled obligations.
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation did not review the case.
Recall that if individual elements of the product cannot be used for their intended purpose or they have no consumer value, the customer can charge a penalty for the total amount of the contract without taking into account partial execution. Earlier, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation pointed this out.
Document: Ruling of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 13.10.2023 N 305-ES23-18799
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