BAKGRUNN (fra kommisjonsforslaget)

Every year, around 18 billion invoices are issued in the EU, more than 500 every second. Reliable payment streams are necessary to make the EU economy, and especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), more competitive.

Goods and services are often supplied on deferred payments: the supplier (the creditor) grants the client (the debtor) a payment term to pay the invoice (trade credit), after the goods are delivered or the service agreed on in the contract is provided. Late payments are payments not made within the agreed or legal term. They affect companies in all sectors and all Member States and, to a disproportionate degree, severely affect SMEs .

The root cause of late payments is asymmetries in bargaining power between a large client (debtor) and a smaller supplier (creditor). This often results in the supplier’s having to accept unfair payment terms and conditions. For debtors, paying late is an attractive form of finance that costs the debtor nothing but does have a cost for the creditor. This is compounded by the inadequacy of the current EU legal framework, Directive 2011/7/EU (the Late Payment Directive), which lacks sufficient preventive measures and suitable deterrents, and whose enforcement and redress mechanisms are insufficient.

The revision of the Late Payment Directive addresses these shortcomings, with the ultimate aims of improving the payment discipline of all concerned actors (public authorities, large companies and SMEs) and protecting companies from the negative effects of payment delays in commercial transactions.

The revision of the Late Payment Directive has been included in the Commission 2023 work programme under the objective ‘A Europe fit for the Digital Age’.