A Jordanian company U sold 60 armoured vehicles to a Swiss company T, with the first five vehicles due to be delivered at Baghdad Airport on 31 December 2004. Delivery at the time agreed was made a condition of the validity of a rental contract relating to 75 other vehicles. Company U applied to a manufacturer of armoured vehicles, the French company UI, to buy its first five vehicles. It was that contract that was the subject of the present case. On conclusion of the contract, the seller, UI, drew up a pro forma invoice with the words “Total C&F [cost and freight] Baghdad Airport”, stating an overall price, made up of an “ex works” price and air transport costs. Company U added to this pro forma invoice the words “We accept your pro forma ex works excluding shipment”. Subsequently, company UI ordered an aircraft and requested payment. Having been paid, it transported the five vehicles from its Austrian workshops by land as far as Budapest Airport, where they were to be loaded on to an aircraft headed for Baghdad. Owing to a technical fault, the transporter was unable to make the flight. The deadline for the duty of delivery by company U to company T was imminent, so company UI sought the services of another transporter, which undertook to take the vehicles by road to Istanbul, where they were to be loaded on to an aircraft to Baghdad via Amman. The vehicles never arrived in Baghdad, for reasons unknown.