Un différend est survenu dans le cadre d'un contrat entre une société turque (demanderesse) et une société allemande (défenderesse) obligeant la défenderesse à fournir du matériel et des services pour permettre à la demanderesse de fabriquer des produits en Turquie.

'The Contract does not contain a choice of law clause. It leaves the determination of the applicable law to the Arbitral Tribunal (Article 20.3 of the Contract). The Arbitral Tribunal decided that the CISG and German law shall govern the contractual relations between the Parties for the following reasons:

The EEC Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations (hereinafter "EEC-Convention") was adopted by many European states including France. Since the place of arbitration is situated within France, the Arbitral Tribunal decided to apply the EEC-Convention in order to determine the applicable law.

According to Article 4 para. 1 of the EEC-Convention, the law of the country with which the Contract is most closely connected shall apply.

Under para. 2 of Article 4 it is presumed that the Contract is most closely connected with the country where the party which is to effect the performance which is characteristic of the Contract (in case of a body corporate) has its central administration.

The Contract is basically a sales contract of a total contract value of DEM 3,000,000.00. More than 90% of this amount had to be paid for deliveries.

Only very minor amounts had to be paid for services like assembling and commissioning.

The performance which is characteristic of the Contract is therefore the delivery by [Respondent].

When signing the Contract, as well as today, [Respondent] had and has its central administration in Germany. [Respondent's Italian affiliate] was only a subcontractor of [Respondent].

Although Turkey is not a member state of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sales of Goods, this Convention is to be applied by virtue of Article I para. 1 (b) of the Convention.'