Short answer. Yes. The Civil Code allows one party to fix the price as long as the other party accepts it. Once accepted, the sale is perfected. The rule that the price cannot be left to one party's discretion applies only when the other party has no say — acceptance cures the problem.
What the law says
if the price fixed by one of the parties is accepted by the other, the sale is perfected
Civil Code, Article 1473 — Price Cannot Be Left to One Party. Read the full provision →
The general rule and its exception
Article 1473 of the Civil Code begins with a prohibition: The fixing of the price can never be left to the discretion of one of the contracting parties. The concern is that allowing one party to set the price unilaterally — and leaving it there, with the other party bound regardless of what price is chosen — would remove the element of mutual agreement that is essential to a valid sale. But the article immediately provides an exception: if the price fixed by one of the parties is accepted by the other, the sale is perfected. Acceptance is what transforms a unilateral price into an agreed price.
Why acceptance makes the difference
The prohibition on leaving the price to one party's discretion targets a specific danger: a contract where one side is completely at the mercy of the other's later choice. If the price is not yet fixed and the other party must accept whatever figure is eventually named, there is no real agreement — just a promise to be bound by whatever one side decides. But when one party names a price and the other party agrees to it, both parties have now consented to that specific figure. There is no longer a discretion problem; the price has become the product of mutual agreement.
What counts as acceptance
Acceptance of the price must be clear and genuine. The party who did not set the price must actually agree to it — not be coerced, not be told they have no choice, not be presented with a price that can still be changed. If the arrangement is that the selling party will name any price it wants at any time, the exception does not apply and the contract may be void for lack of a determined or determinable price. But if one party says "I will sell for X" and the other says "agreed," that is a straightforward perfected sale under Article 1473.
When this matters in practice
This rule is relevant in several common situations: a seller who quotes a price in a message and a buyer who replies accepting it; a purchase order that names a unit price that the supplier confirms; or a valuation done by one party that the other explicitly approves in writing. In each case, the sale is perfected at the moment of acceptance — even if the quoted price was proposed entirely by one side. Any dispute about whether a sale was perfected will turn partly on whether a price was actually named and whether the other party unambiguously agreed to it.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Nicasio Macutay vs. Sosima Samoy, et al, G.R. No. 205559, December 2, 2020 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Consolidated Rural Bank (Cagayan Valley), Inc., vs. The Honorable Court of Appeals, et al, G.R. No. 132161, January 17, 2005 — read the decision on LawPhil →