The goal of every contractual relationship is the mutual fulfilment of obligations. However, in everyday business practice, it often happens that the parties with whom we have entered into a contract fail to fulfil it correctly or on time, whether intentionally or unintentionally. OZ provides several legal instruments that can be used when concluding a contract to encourage the counterparty to adhere more strictly to contractual discipline. From an economic perspective, the use of such mechanisms increases the costs for the party breaching contractual obligations. Due to the assumption of rationality and the maximisation of one’s benefits, these additional potential costs of breach motivate the counterparty to maintain optimal contractual discipline, thereby ensuring more optimal fulfilment of its contractual commitments. Among these legal instruments are earnest money and withdrawal compensation, which will be discussed in the following section.¹⁴³