EU Directive 2011/7 aims at combating late payments in commercial transactions. Member States have transposed its provisions enabling a creditor to obtain interest on late payments and a compensation for recovery costs, by way of a fixed sum of EUR 40 in minimum. All this without the necessity of issuing a reminder to the debtor.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) rendered four different cases in the last months of 2022, two decisions handed down on 20 October 2022 and two others on 1 December 2022. Different national courts referred to the ECJ for preliminary rulings concerning the interpretation to give to various provisions of the directive. The ECJ brought clarifications regarding the minimum fixed sum of EUR 40 (1), the unfair contractual terms (2), and the temporal scope of Directive 2011/7 (3).

Article L.442-1 of the French Commercial Code says: Any person engaged in production, distribution or service activities who abruptly terminates, even partially, an established commercial relationship in the absence of written notice which takes into account, in particular, the duration of the commercial relationship, with reference to trade practices or interprofessional agreements, shall see their responsibility engaged and be obliged to repair the damages caused.
This Article gives a few indications on how to benefit from it.

IR visits Thailand and hosts this year’s “On the Road” event in Bangkok. Charlène RUSSO-TRANCHAND and Yaotian CHAI take part in the meeting to represent rothpartners in Bangkok.