Article 222

What it means when you sign

This article lets a party hold back performance in a two-sided contract. In a bilateral contract, once the obligations on both sides are due for performance, each party may refrain from performing its own obligation if the other party has not performed what it undertook.

The article applies to contracts where each side owes something to the other, such as goods against payment or work against fees. It applies only when the obligations are due. It lets a party pause its own performance. It does not by itself end the contract.

When you are about to sign, this article means that a clause requiring one side to keep performing even if the other side is in default may run against it. An example is a clause requiring a customer to keep paying while the supplier has not delivered, or a contractor to keep working while payments are overdue. It is worth checking whether the contract has clauses on suspension, set-off or conditions on payment, and how they fit with this right.