When an IT project drastically exceeds the agreed budgets, the question often arises as to whether you, the client, may unilaterally terminate the contract. A judgment by the French-speaking Enterprise Court of Brussels dated August 1, 2025 confirms that an IT supplier who refuses to complete the project within an agreed budget cap is committing a serious breach of contract. Moreover, the supplier violates its information and advice obligation when it fails to warn the client in a timely manner of such overruns, justifying an out-of-court termination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this case, a company commissioned an IT service provider to modernize its IT systems through the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365. The parties entered into a contract in October 2018 on a time & material basis, but with a defined budget cap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After significant delays and budget discussions, the parties entered into a settlement agreement (transaction protocol) in July 2020<\/sup><\/sup><\/sup><\/sup>. This increased the budget by 103,000 euros and set a new delivery deadline, coupled with a penalty clause for late delivery<\/sup><\/sup><\/sup><\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite these new agreements, the project was again delayed and the IT vendor announced in June 2021 that the project could only be completed with an additional budget of 436,850 euros (excluding a potential margin of 35%)<\/sup><\/sup><\/sup><\/sup>. The customer lost confidence and proceeded to terminate the contract out of court in July 2021<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Brussels Enterprise Court had to rule on the legality of this unilateral dissolution<\/sup>. The court reached the following remarkable decisions:<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe court's decision<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Legal analysis and interpretation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n