Parcel delay

Montreal Convention 1999 — international carriage of cargo by air

TreatyMONTREALRead off primary law

Montreal Convention 1999 (treaty regime — international carriage by air)

Rule id: parcel.montreal-cargo
Version: 1.0.0
In force from: November 4, 2003
Last read against its sources: August 5, 2026
Countries bound: None listed — a treaty whose party states are set by accession

In plain language

What this regime says.

International carriage of cargo by air is governed by the Montreal Convention, which limits the carrier's liability to a per-kilogram figure revised by ICAO every five years and makes void any term in the carrier's conditions that goes below it. The complaint deadlines are short — fourteen days for damage, twenty-one for delay — and missing them bars the action entirely.

Who is covered

Anyone whose goods moved by air between two States Parties with a commercial carrier. Postal items are excluded: Art. 2(2) makes the carrier liable only to the postal administration.

What you get

The proven value of the cargo, capped at the per-kilogram limit in force on the date of carriage, plus court costs and interest outside the cap. Higher if a special declaration of interest was made and the supplementary sum paid.

Where claims go wrong

Missing the fourteen- or twenty-one-day written complaint. Art. 31(4) then bars the action entirely.
Quoting the current per-kilogram limit for carriage that predates the last revision.
Expecting to break the cap by proving recklessness. For cargo, unlike baggage, the limit is unbreakable.
Treating a complaint to the carrier as stopping the two-year period. It does not.

The official claim route

Authority

Every citation,
with its pinpoint.

A claim that cites “EU law” gets filed. A claim that cites Article 7(1)(c) gets answered. These are the exact coordinates this entry rests on.

Montreal Convention 1999, Art. 22(3)Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air (Montreal, 28 May 1999)URL verified 2026-08-05Art. 22(3) — in the carriage of cargo, the liability of the carrier in the case of destruction, loss, damage or delay is limited to a sum per kilogram, revised under Art. 24; Art. 22(6) — court costs and other expenses of litigation are not included in the limit
Montreal Convention 1999, Art. 31Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air (Montreal, 1999)URL verified 2026-08-05Art. 31(2) — complaint in writing within 14 days of receipt in the case of damage to cargo, and within 21 days from the date on which the cargo was placed at the consignee's disposal in the case of delay; Art. 31(4) — no action lies against the carrier if no complaint is made within those times, save in the case of fraud
Montreal Convention 1999, Art. 35Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air (Montreal, 1999)URL verified 2026-08-05Art. 35 — the right to damages is extinguished if an action is not brought within two years from arrival at the destination, from the date on which the aircraft ought to have arrived, or from the date on which the carriage stopped
Montreal Convention 1999, Art. 26Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air (Montreal, 1999)URL verified 2026-08-05Art. 26 — any provision tending to relieve the carrier of liability or to fix a lower limit than that laid down in the Convention shall be null and void

Sources

Where a figure is indexed, converted or published by a regulator rather than fixed in the instrument, the provenance is recorded separately. Anything marked as a modelled estimate is exactly that — a model, not a statutory number.

ICAO Treaty Collection — Montreal Convention 1999 and the Art. 24 limit revisionsInternational Civil Aviation Organizationretrieved 2026-08-05

What it imposes

Clocks, defences and the ladder.

A rule module builds these while it evaluates, because a limitation period depends on which forum is open to you. What follows is the structure this regime produces — deliberately with no dates and no figures, because those belong to your facts rather than to the law.

Documents

What this regime can produce.

Every one of these is a document you send yourself, in your own name. Duesday never writes to anybody on your behalf and is never anyone’s agent.

The same claim type elsewhere

CMR Convention — international carriage of goods by road (8.33 SDR per kilogram)CMRTreaty — party states varyCMR Convention, Art. 23 Hague-Visby Rules — international carriage of goods by seaHAGUEVISBYTreaty — party states varyHague-Visby Rules, Art. IV r. 5(a)International postal items — Universal Postal Convention inquiry and indemnityUPUTreaty — party states varyUniversal Postal Convention European Union — delivery rights on consumer sales (Directive 2011/83/EU, Art. 18)EUSupranational — 30 countriesDirective 2011/83/EU, Art. 18 France — La Poste / Colissimo compensationFRNational — FranceCode des postes et des communications électroniques and La Poste’s conditions générales de vente Germany — Deutsche Post DHL domestic parcelsDENational — GermanyPostgesetz and the DHL Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen Paket/Päckchen DHL Express — service commitments and claimsDENational — GermanyDHL Express Terms and Conditions of Carriage Netherlands — PostNL compensationNLNational — NetherlandsPostwet 2009 and PostNL’s algemene voorwaarden

Does this one reach your facts?

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Not a law firm. Not legal advice. You send it yourself. This page describes a law; it is not advice about your situation and no outcome is promised.