International logistics & trade disputes before courts in mainland China

We act for overseas manufacturers, suppliers, carriers and logistics service providers in cargo claims, carriage and forwarding disputes, and related international sale of goods matters before courts in mainland China.

Practice focus

Our work is concentrated on disputes arising out of international logistics and international trade. Typical instructions concern:

International sale of goods — disputes over conformity, delivery time, quantity and payment under cross-border sales contracts (set out in more detail below).
Carriage of goods by sea, air and multimodal transport — cargo loss or damage, delay, misdelivery, bills of lading, the carrier's period of responsibility and limits of liability.
Freight forwarding and logistics services — remuneration and disbursements, scope of authority, identification of the contracting party, and the position of sub-contractors and actual carriers.
Destination-port and terminal charges — container demurrage, storage and handling fees, unclaimed or refused cargo, and the exercise of a lien over goods.
Cross-border procedure for foreign parties — jurisdiction and dispute-resolution clauses, corporate authorisation, notarisation and apostille formalities, evidence preparation, interim asset preservation, and the recognition and enforcement of judgments and arbitral awards.

International sale of goods disputes

A substantial part of our work concerns contracts for the international sale of goods. Where the Chinese counterparty fails to perform as agreed, we advise and act on the following questions:

Non-conforming delivery — goods that do not meet the contractual description, specification, sample, quality standard, quantity tolerance or packaging requirements; inspection and notice requirements, and the buyer's rights to reject, require repair or replacement, reduce the price or claim damages.
Failure to deliver on time — late shipment or late delivery, missed delivery windows, contractual penalty and liquidated damages clauses, and loss caused by delay, including claims between sellers, buyers and the carriers engaged to move the goods.
Failure to deliver the agreed quantity — short shipment, partial delivery, non-delivery and shortages discovered on arrival, including the allocation of responsibility between seller, carrier, terminal and cargo interests.
Payment and set-off — recovery of the purchase price, refusal to pay or take delivery, set-off against quality or quantity claims, and documentary credits, bills and payment terms used in cross-border trade.
Risk, title and trade terms — passing of risk and property under the agreed trade terms, who bears loss in transit, and the interaction between the sale contract, the bill of lading and cargo insurance.
Termination and remedies — avoidance or termination of the contract, substitute purchases, mitigation, quantification of loss, and the governing law and jurisdiction of the sales contract.

Sale-of-goods disputes frequently overlap with carriage and cargo claims, and with questions of jurisdiction, applicable law and enforcement where the buyer or seller is in mainland China.

Representative issues in contentious matters

The following are issue types drawn from contested matters in the fields above. They are set out to illustrate the kind of questions we work on, and are stated in anonymised terms.

Carrier's duty of care for the goods — whether cargo damage connected with a third party's accident at the port falls within the carrier's obligations during its period of responsibility.
Forwarding fees and jurisdiction — recovery of freight-forwarding remuneration in a dispute involving a foreign corporate party, together with objections to the jurisdiction of mainland courts.
Refused or unclaimed delivery — recovery of costs incurred when a consignee does not take delivery, and the route to enforcing a lien against the party that arranged the shipment.
Air cargo charges — claims for freight and ancillary charges, proof of delivery, and identification of the proper contracting party.
Multimodal cargo claims — compensation for the value of goods where the lawfulness of the cargo under the law of the overseas destination is also in issue.
Destination-port charges — container demurrage, cargo handling and storage fees under contracts of carriage by sea.

All matters are described by issue only. No party names, vessel names, case numbers, courts, dates, amounts or outcomes are disclosed.

About the lawyer

Name: Rex Sun | SunDaren (孙达仁) | PRC Lawyer's Licence No. 14403201910140796
Education: LLM in International Commercial Law, University of Leeds (United Kingdom); postgraduate study in maritime law at the University of Southampton (United Kingdom).
Practice: Since admission as a PRC lawyer, practice has focused on dispute resolution in international logistics and international trade.
Recognition: Selected for the Guangdong Pioneer Talent Pool of Foreign-related Lawyers (广东省涉外律师先锋人才库) and the Shenzhen Foreign-related Lawyers New Talent Pool (深圳市涉外律师新锐人才库).
Firm and address: CHINA COMMERCIAL & HASTINGS LAW FIRM | 6/F, Building 1, Changfu Jinmao Building, No. 5 Shihua Road, Futian District, Shenzhen, P.R. China

The firm

CHINA COMMERCIAL & HASTINGS LAW FIRM is a Shenzhen–Hong Kong associate law firm established with the approval of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Justice and based in the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone.

Resources

The following practitioner materials are available on request, free of charge:

China Claim Feasibility Checklist — a one-page assessment of whether a claim can be filed in mainland China, and what is needed to start.
Document Checklist for Foreign Corporate Claimants — certificate of incorporation, legal representative certificate, power of attorney, notarisation and apostille.
Cargo & Trade Evidence Checklist — records worth preserving before a dispute escalates: delivery and handover records, survey reports, bills of lading, booking and freight records, and destination-port charges.

If you have a pending cargo, freight or trade claim involving a counterparty in mainland China, write to sundaren@chinacargoclaims.com for a one-page feasibility assessment. No engagement is created by requesting it.

Correspondence

For enquiries: sundaren@chinacargoclaims.com. Please reply to the address shown in the message you received. Correspondence from this domain is individual and business-related; we do not send bulk marketing. If you would prefer not to receive further messages, simply reply "no thanks" and we will remove your address.

We process only the contact details necessary to answer your enquiry. We do not sell or share them with third parties.

Attorney at law

Rex Sun