Abstract

Combating Late Payment in Commercial Transactions in the Light of the Directive 2000/35/EC and in the Polish Law

Summary

The European Community has recognized late payments as one of
important obstacles to a good functioning of the internal market. The
preparatory works of the EC in this field prove that a long way has been
come from the European Parliament’s initiative to the directive 2000/35/E C
of the European Parliament and the Council dated 29 June 2000 on
combating late payment in commercial transactions. A rather limited scope
of the directive is a result of extensive modifications introduced by the
Council to the initial proposals. The directive concentrates on the interests in
case of late payment, reasonable compensation for recovery costs, retention
of title and recovery procedures for unchallenged claims. The above study
presents the substance of the directive and its transposition rules.

The first attempt to implement the EC directive in Poland was the law
of 6 September 2001. As it was not satisfactory, a new law on payment
terms in commercial transactions was issued on 12 June 2003. It will enter
into force on 1 January 2004. This new law is limited to interests and
procedural aspects. The above study presents the results of the directive’s
transposition within this law. The act of law from 2003 certainly sets new
limits on the freedom of contracts, but it is an interesting and rare example
of a protection of weaker parts to the contract, which are not consumers,
but enterprises. W hat should be reproached is that a typical civil matter is
regulated in an act of law separate from the Polish Civil Code. A breach of
the rule of the integrity of the Polish Civil Code is again a price for the fast
implementation of the EC law in Poland.