Editing Privity of contract (section)

==Third party rights==
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Privity of contract occurs only between the parties to the contract, most commonly
[[contract of sale]] of goods or services. Horizontal privity arises when the benefits from a contract are to be given to a third party. Vertical privity involves a contract between two parties, with an independent contract between one of the parties and another individual or corporation.

If a third party gets a benefit under a contract, it does not have the right to go against the parties to the contract beyond its entitlement to a benefit. An example of this occurs when a manufacturer sells a product to a distributor and the distributor sells the product to a retailer. The retailer then sells the product to a consumer. There is no privity of contract between the manufacturer and the consumer.

This, however, does not mean that the parties do not have another form of action: for instance, in  ''[[Donoghue v. Stevenson]]''{{spaced ndash}} a friend of Ms. Donoghue bought her a bottle of ginger beer, which contained the partially decomposed remains of a snail. Since the contract was between her friend and the shop owner, Mrs. Donoghue could not sue under the contract, but it was established that the manufacturer was in breach of a [[duty of care]] owed to her. Accordingly, she was awarded damages in the tort of negligence for having suffered [[gastroenteritis]] and "nervous shock".