Seller's Obligations in Material Conformity of Goods with Digital Elements in EU Directive 2019 and its Status in Iranian Law

Abstract

The digital revolution has led to growing smart goods, which today have become an important economic and social element. This has prompted the European Union to lay down provisions on the basic elements of the sale of goods, including material conformity of digital goods, in order to make the most of the existing capacity and economic growth of its member countries. The issue of material conformity of goods with the contract has always played a central role in domestic and international sales transactions. The mentioned directive, contrary to the domestic laws of most countries, provides a single concept of goods conformity and implements the same performance guarantee in case of non-conformity. But in Iranian law, there is no specific regulation on the subject of goods conformity, and it sporadically provides subtle distinctions on the subject of goods conformity, which has caused differences between lawyers and court opinions, and as a result, the lack of development of cross-border transactions. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to determine the seller's obligations regarding the material conformity of digital goods with the contract by examining the aforementioned instructions and to analyze this situation in Iranian law. These studies showed that in the sale of digital goods, the subjective and objective requirements of conformity, in addition to the physical component of the goods, must also be present in its digital component, and the seller is committed to providing updates. However, there is no explicit text in this regard in Iranian law, but traces of these requirements can be found in scattered laws.

Keywords

• conformity
• material
• update
• good
• digital elements