Can an offer be withdrawn and revoked?
Withdrawing an offer involves an act, which prevents an offer from becoming effective before it reaches the offeree. Therefore since an offer does not become effective until it is communicated to the offeree, the offeror is entitled to withdraw its offer before it reaches the offeree. The CISG allows the offeror to withdraw an offer provided the withdrawal reaches the offeree before or at the same time as the offer reaches the offeree.
In civil law jurisdictions such as China, an offer is in principle binding on the offeror unless the offeror indicates in the offer that it will not be bound by the offer before it is accepted. If the offer does not state the duration of the offer, the offeror cannot revoke or amend the offer before the time that the offeror is expected to receive the acceptance from the offeree, which must be a reasonable time period.
The CISG provisions state that until a FTC is concluded an offer may be revoked if the revocation reaches the offeree before it has dispatched an acceptance.
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