poration that grows and sells tulips and other varieties of cut flowers. Its sole owners, Benno and Klazina Dobbe, founded Holland America together after immigrating to the United States from the Netherlands in 1980.
In 1994, Holland America began purchasing flower bulbs from Midbrook Flow-erbulbs Holland, B.Y. (“Midbrook”), ' a Dutch corporation in which Arie Dobbe, Benno’s brother, was a manager and part owner. Midbrook purchased flower bulbs from farms in the Netherlands and elsewhere, packaged them for shipment, and exported them to Holland America’s farm in Washington. Though Holland America and Midbrook never entered into a written agreement regarding payment, Benno and Arie orally agreed that Holland America would pay Midbrook its “actual costs on a one to one basis plus, a commission.”
For each shipment, Midbrook sent Holland America an invoice in Dutch guilders.1 Instead of paying these invoices directly to Midbrook in guilders, Holland America deposited a lump sum of dollars into a Dutch bank account in Midbrook’s name (the “dollar account”). At “fixed intervals,” Midbrook withdrew dollars from the dollar account, exchanged them into guilders, and then deposited them into a second Dutch bank account (the “guilder account”), which was also in its name. Then, when the invoices became, due, Midbrook paid itself the invoiced amount of guilders from the guilder account. Midbrook regularly sent Holland America statements for the two accounts, and Holland America was responsible for ensuring that there were enough dollars in-the dollar account to cover the periodic transfers to the guilder account.
Sometime in 1997, Benno Dobbe noticed that Midbrook’s costs “appeared to be higher than the bulb import costs that [his] competitors were obtaining from, other Dutch suppliers.” Benno became suspicious that Midbrook was overcharging Holland America, and he asked Arie to provide documentation substantiating Mid-brook’s costs. Arie assured. Benno that Midbrook’s invoices were correct, but he refused to provide the requested documentation, In June 1999, the parties agreed that they would “terminate their relationship” the following year, but that Midbrook would “still handle the export of the flower bulb harvest [in the fall] of 1999.” Between January 11 and May 22, 2000, Midbrook sent Holland America invoices for the 1999 harvest which totaled 3,211,568 guilders. Holland America never deposited dollars into the dollar account sufficient to cover these invoices, and Mid-brook overdrew the dollar account to pay itself for them.
B. Procedural Background
1. Proceedings in the Alkmaar District Court .
In 2002, Midbrook filed a lawsuit against Holland America in the Alkmaar District Court in the Netherlands, seeking payment for the 1999 harvest shipments. Holland America did not deny that it had not paid Midbrook for the 1999 harvest; rather, it'argued that Midbrook had “invoiced [Holland America] for too high an amount for years,” and that Holland America had “[overpaid more in total during the period from 1994 to August 2000 ... than Mid-brook had-invoiced [for the 1999 harvest],” Though Holland America “provisionally estimated” the' amount of the overcharge to be $4,434,387 (roughly 9 million guilders), it asked the court to “order Midbrook to provide its bookkeeping records for the years 1984 up to and including December
1
The Netherlands did not adopt the Euro as its currency until 2002. ■