Eleven rules, and two ways of grouping them

The notes start from a worry about the new Incoterms rules, DAT and DAP, against the background of Incoterms 2000. In Incoterms 2010, they write, the number of rules falls from thirteen to eleven. A first group can be used whatever mode of transport is chosen, and even when more than one mode is used: EXW, FCA, CPT, CIP, DAT, DAP, and DDP. A second group is labelled for sea and inland waterway transport, because the point of delivery and the place the goods are carried to the buyer is a port: FAS, FOB, CFR, and CIF.

DAT is given as delivery at a terminal. The new rules, the notes say, made the Incoterms 2000 rules DES and DEQ unnecessary. A neighbouring line in the notes is clumsier, and is not tidied here into a cleaner official list. The last three Incoterms rules, they add, dropped a preference for goods carried “on board” a ship, which they say reflects modern commercial practice more closely.

Domestic sales, electronic messages, and costs that should not be paid twice

Traders, the notes say, often use Incoterms rules even for purely domestic sales contracts. The United States, in this telling, prefers Incoterms for domestic trade over earlier uniform commercial shipment and delivery terms. The 2010 subtitle officially allows the rules to apply to both international and domestic sales, so that export and import formalities appear only where they actually arise, and should be spelled out clearly in the relevant places.

Guidance notes to each 2010 rule, they write, explain when to use it, when risk passes, and how costs are divided between seller and buyer, so that a user can pick the right rule more accurately. Older versions of the Incoterms rules named documents that could be replaced by an EDI message. Article 1/B1 of the 2010 rules, the notes say, gives electronic communication the same standing as paper when the parties agree or when it is customary.

Who must arrange the carriage, and a string of sales

Under the Incoterms rules as the notes list them, CPT, CIP, CFR, CIF, DAT, DAP, and DDP require the seller to arrange carriage of the goods to the agreed destination. Clauses A6 and B6, they add, aim to avoid two overlapping charges — levied as part of the total sale price on the seller and also on the carrier or the terminal operator — and to allocate those costs clearly in advance. The notes also touch security-related information in A2/B2 and A10/B10, terminal handling charges, and string sales, without adding a later official commentary. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. Incoterms 2010, as the notes name and group the rules, including DAT and DAP against Incoterms 2000

Last updated: 14 November 2026