Short answer. Yes. The Civil Code says the seller is not bound to deliver the thing sold if the buyer has not paid the price, or if the contract fixed no period for payment. Withholding delivery in that situation is not a breach — it is the seller exercising a right the law gives him.
What the law says
The vendor shall not be bound to deliver the thing sold, if the vendee has not paid him the price, or if no period for the payment has been fixed in the contract.
Civil Code, Article 1524 — Delivery Conditioned on Payment. Read the full provision →
Sale is a two-sided bargain
A sale creates obligations on both sides: the seller must deliver, the buyer must pay. The law does not require one party to perform first and then chase the other. Where nothing has been agreed about timing, delivery and payment are treated as happening together, and a seller who is asked to release the goods while the price is still outstanding may simply decline. This is not a penalty imposed on the buyer and it is not a cancellation of the sale. The contract remains alive; the seller's duty to deliver is merely suspended until the buyer does his part. A buyer who sues for delivery without having paid is asking a court to enforce only one half of the agreement.
The two triggers, read carefully
There are two, and the second is easy to miss. The first is straightforward — the buyer has not paid the price. The second operates even where nothing is yet due: if no period for the payment has been fixed in the contract. Where the parties never agreed on when payment falls due, the seller is not obliged to deliver and then wait indefinitely to be paid. The absence of agreed credit terms works in the seller's favour, not the buyer's. This is why the buyer who wants goods released before paying must be able to point to something in the agreement granting him time — an instalment schedule, a payment-on-invoice term, a stated due date.
The exception is agreed credit
Turn the rule around and you see its limit. If the contract does fix a period for payment — thirty days from invoice, payment on installment, settlement after inspection — the seller has agreed to deliver first and be paid later. He cannot then refuse delivery merely because he has become uneasy or because the buyer is slow on some other transaction. Having granted credit, the seller must perform and pursue collection afterwards. This is the single most common dispute in supply arrangements: whether the paperwork actually granted terms. Purchase orders, quotations, credit application forms and past dealings between the same parties all bear on it, which is why what is written on those documents matters far more than what was said.
What withholding delivery does not do
Refusing to deliver is a defensive right, not a remedy. It does not cancel the sale, it does not entitle the seller to keep any deposit already received, and it does not let him resell the goods to somebody else while the contract stands. A seller who wants to be free of the deal has to pursue rescission, which is a separate step with its own requirements, and the rules differ depending on whether the thing sold is movable or immovable. Nor does withholding excuse the seller from taking reasonable care of goods he continues to hold. If the buyer eventually tenders the full price, the obligation to deliver revives, and the seller who has meanwhile disposed of the goods is the one in breach. Where a valuable shipment is being held back, have the contract terms reviewed by counsel first.