CMR Article 32: why a three-year archive may already be too late

An overcharge on a carrier's invoice does not disappear. The right to claim it does.

One year, not three

Article 32 of the CMR Convention provides that the limitation period for actions arising out of carriage under the Convention is one year.

Three years apply only in the case of wilful misconduct, or such default as is considered equivalent to it by the law of the court seised of the case. And this matters: whether conduct is of that kind is decided by the court, not by the party bringing the claim. Relying on three years in advance is risky.

The start is not the invoice date

Intuitively it would seem that the period runs from receipt of the invoice. The Convention says otherwise.

In the case of partial loss, damage or delay — from the date of delivery. In the case of total loss — thirty days after the agreed time limit, or sixty days from when the goods were taken over.

In all other cases, on the expiry of a period of three months after the making of the contract of carriage.

An invoice overcharge, a wrongly applied rate, a fuel surcharge error and a duplicate all fall into that last category.

The first day is not counted.

What that looks like in numbers

A contract made on 1 March 2025. The period starts on 1 June 2025. It ends on 2 June 2026.

Fifteen months from the contract. Not three years.

If the audit is carried out in September 2026, claims from that contract are already time-barred — even though the invoices had been sitting in the archive for barely eighteen months.

When CMR does not apply

Article 32 is broad in scope: it covers not only claims founded on specific articles of the Convention, but all claims connected with carriage governed by the CMR.

But a forwarding contract is not a contract of carriage. Article 32 does not apply to a forwarding agreement connected with international carriage, and the national period — usually longer — governs instead.

This means the same discrepancy can have a completely different window depending on which contract was signed. That is a question worth settling before the audit, not after.

The practical conclusion

The first question before starting is not “how much can we find”. The first question is “what can still be claimed”.

And if something is about to expire, it is worth submitting a claim before it does — because a written claim suspends the running of the period.