Explanation of Article 364
The article clarified that the expenses of the barter contract, such as contract registration fees, attorney fees, and other expenses required for concluding the contract, are to be shared equally between the contracting parties. This is one of the differences that distinguishes the rule of the barter contract from the contract of sale; it is necessitated by the nature of the barter contract, where each party is considered a seller of what they bartered and a buyer of what they received in exchange. In a sale contract, the buyer alone bears these expenses. If we apply this rule to the barter contract, each contracting party must be considered a buyer of what they received in exchange, and consequently, these expenses must be divided equally between them.
The difference in the value of the exchanged items and the addition of a monetary rate to one of them does not affect the rule contained in the article. Even if the barter is between two items, one of which is of higher value than the other, and a monetary rate is added to the lesser item or not, the contract expenses are to be shared equally between them.
The rule of this article is not of public order, so if there is an explicit or implicit agreement that one of the contracting parties bears all the contract expenses, or bears more than the other, it must be adhered to. An implicit agreement could be the custom or practice of the contracting parties contrary to what the article's rule stipulates.
Related To
Article 364
The costs of a contract of exchange shall be equally shared by the parties, unless agreed otherwise.