Combating late payments

On 8th April the European Commission unveiled its proposal how to combat late payments in commercial transactions between businesses or between businesses and public authorities. It specifies, inter alia, that compensation rights for recovery costs and statutory interest may be charged when payment is not made within the contractual or legal deadline (30 days). The proposal focuses namely on public authorities responsible for extremely long delays and sets up a compensation of 5 % of the amount specified in the contract after the period of payment.