Further possible changes to Late Payments Directive

In April 2009 the European Commission issued a press release in which it proposed to alter substantially the Late Payments Directive on the grounds of overwhelming evidence that late payment in commercial transactions was still a problem, with public authorities in Member States being particularly bad. The recast Directive proposed that public authorities should pay within 30 days or pay 5% compensation plus interest, there should be late payment interest and the minimum claim of €5 should be abolished.

According to a press release, the points agreed between Parliament and the Council were:-

• The standard deadline for public and private companies to pay should be 30 days. Only in exceptional circumstances can the payment period be longer and then 60 days should be the maximum for public authorities. It is not clear what the position is for private sector customers, nor whether the public sector can pay by instalments (one of the concerns being that payment by