Limits of liability

33 . The Convention provides two different financial limits for the operator's liability, depending upon the mode of transport to which the terminal operations relate (articles 6 and 16). The lower limits are applicable to terminal operations relating to the carriage of goods by sea or inland waterways, and the higher limits apply to other terminal operations; this distinction reflects the fact that the value of goods carried by sea or inland waterways tends to be lower than in other modes of transport. Furthermore, those lower limits, which are close to the limits set in conventions dealing with carriage of goods by sea or inland waterways, are designed to treat sea and inland-waterways terminals in a similar way as the sea and inland-waterways carriers.

34 . The limits for loss of, or damage to, goods are based exclusively on the weight of goods. The Convention does not provide an alternative limit based on the package or other shipping unit as, for example, do the Hamburg Rules and the Hague Rules. This will mean that, the lighter and smaller the packages, the lower will be the operator's limits compared to the sea carrier's limits. A reason for not providing a per-package limit was a desire to avoid difficulties in interpreting the limits based on the package or other shipping unit.

35 . The Convention does not provide an overall limit of liability when damage is caused by a single event to goods pertaining to a number of different owners. For example, a fire in a terminal can give rise to an extensive liability of the operator despite the limitation applicable to each claimant. Such a "catastrophic" limit was not adopted because a single limit would likely be too low for large terminals and would not represent a real limitation of liability for the smaller ones. No satisfactory criterion could be found for providing different overall limits depending on the size of the terminal. Furthermore, it was considered that insurance can be a solution for liability arising from such catastrophic events.