One further issue that has been raised in the UCP revision consultation concerns the allowance of a partial acceptance of amendments.
UCP 600 sub-article 10 (e) states that partial acceptance of an amendment is not allowed and will be deemed to be notification of rejection of the amendment.
Non-allowance of a partial acceptance of an amendment is not a new concept and was also apparent in UCP 500. Allowing partial acceptance has the potential to lead to greater confusion and is, rightly, discouraged.
From a legal perspective and as outlined in ‘Jack: Documentary Credits' (Fourth edition, Ali Malek & David Quest), the contractual analysis is that the bank's offer to amend is a single offer only capable of acceptance as a whole.
A request by the beneficiary to accept some but not all of the offered amendments constitutes a counter-offer, which the banks in turn may accept or refuse, but which in any event deletes the original offer and prevents it from being subsequently accepted.