This Agreement replaces the 1984 Inter-Club Agreement with respect to all parties to the Charter referred to in clause (1) and shall remain in force until amended or terminated. Any change to be effective must be approved in writing by all clubs, but it is open to any club to terminate the agreement by giving in writing to all other clubs, at least three months in advance, such notice, which will take effect on the expiry of this period. At the end of this communication, the agreement will nevertheless continue between all the clubs, with the exception of the club which makes such a communication, which remains bound by this agreement and which is entitled to all cargo claims arising from the parties to the charter commenced before the expiry of this communication. Comments: In order for a claim to be recovered under the ICA, the underlying rights must have been invoked under a contract of carriage approved by the contract of charter, i.e. a bill of lading issued was not issued in violation of the applicable terms of the Charter party. The term “contract of carriage” is very broad and the rights of the ICA can therefore derive from any type of contract of carriage, including bills of lading, sea waybeds, charter parties or even sub-charters. Since the ICA is a commercial agreement, courts often do not find that a bill of lading has not been issued in accordance with the terms of the C/P and as such is “not authorized” for the purposes of the ICA – see London Arbitration 3/13. If, for example, on the day of discharge, 1 January 2020, the date on which damaged cargo is detected at the port of unloading, the parties have from that date a period of two years to notify the other party, in accordance with the conditions of the ICA. Where the underlying freight right is subsequently settled between the owner and the interests of the freight on 1 August 2021, the time limit for initiating proceedings against the charterer concerning the ICA`s right to compensation shall not begin to run until that date and expires on 31 July 2027. Although the New York Produce Exchange Form (NYPE) charter party has been widespread for many years, cargo liability rules do not easily allow owners and charterers to take responsibility for freight claims. More than 25 years ago, international group clubs agreed on a relatively simple burden-sharing formula that they would recommend to their members. The NYPE Inter-Club Agreement appears to have become an industry standard in the sense that the parties to the NYPE charterer now routinely settle the settlement of freight rights between owners and charterers, in accordance with the terms of the agreement. The agreement was updated in 1984 to address a particular shortcoming with regard to the time limit for complaints.
For the rest, there have been no substantial changes. The inter-club agreement, also known as the ICA, first entered into force on 20 February 1970. .