Can I reject an entire shipment if a portion doesn't meet the agreed specification?
Short answer: This generally depends on how significant the non-conforming portion is and what your specific agreement says about acceptable tolerances — rejecting an entire shipment over a small, clearly isolated portion that doesn't meet spec is a harder position to maintain than rejecting a shipment where the non-conformance is substantial or affects the whole lot, so proportionality matters in how you approach this.
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Source Scrap →Why proportionality generally matters here
A buyer rejecting an entire large shipment over a small, isolated non-conforming portion is applying a fairly aggressive remedy relative to the actual problem, which can be harder to justify than a proportionate response like a partial rejection or price adjustment for just the affected portion.
What your specific agreement might say
Some agreements specify acceptable tolerance levels or explicitly address what happens if a portion of a shipment doesn’t meet spec — checking whether your agreement addresses this scenario directly gives you a clearer basis for your position than relying on general principles alone.
A reasonable middle-ground approach
Requesting a price adjustment or partial return for the specific non-conforming portion, rather than rejecting the entire shipment, is often a more proportionate and defensible response unless the non-conformance is genuinely significant or affects a substantial share of the total load.
How ScrapTrade Makes This Easier
Clear agreed specifications recorded as part of a ScrapTrade transaction give you a concrete reference for what “meeting spec” actually means if a portion of a shipment falls short.
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