In a decision of 19 October 2021 (RG 20/03074), the ICCP recalled Recital 13 Rome I, and applied its Article 3 in favour of French law (with URDG 758 as part of the contractual rules)
Résumé : « In this case, the ICCP-CA was seized of an appeal against a judgment of the Paris Commercial Court which had sentenced the Egyptian bank SAIB to carry out its obligation of counter-guarantee in favor of the British bank ABC. The British bank, first rank guarantor of an Egyptian importer CDCM, had paid to the French beneficiary Peugeot the amount of the unpaid invoices corresponding to the imported vehicles, and claimed the payment of said amount in execution of its counter-guarantee to the Egyptian bank.
The bank SAID refused to execute the payment, disputing the validity of the guarantee claim on the grounds that some invoices had already been paid and that the amount claimed was therefore incorrect.
The Court, in application of French law, the law chosen by the parties, and of the Uniform Rules of Guarantee on First Demand n° 758 to which the parties had referred to in their agreement, rejected SAIB bank’s exceptions of non-performance in application of the guarantee’s independence from the initial contract, which does not depend on the guarantee’s qualification of either a first demand guarantee or a stand-by letter of credit (SBLC), the Anglo-Saxon variation of the independent guarantee.
The Court held that the bank’s argument to refuse payment actually amounted to reintroduce into the debate, under the guise of the document’s conformity, the contract’s payment exceptions, which are not enforceable (§46).
The Court did not accept the exception of fraud, a new exception on appeal for which the conditions provided for in article 2321 of the French civil code were not met (§51). The decision of the first judges was therefore entirely confirmed »
European Civil Justice 