Companies, especially small and medium-sized ones, still face great difficulties due to the payment behavior of their business customers.

The Belgian law of 2 August 2002 on combating late payment in commercial transactions did not sufficiently improve payment behaviour between businesses, despite the fact that it imposes a 30-calendar-day time limit for payment of invoices when the payment date or term is not set out in the contract. Indeed, businesses could circumvent this deadline by contractually agreeing to a different payment term. The parties could even agree on a term exceeding 60 calendar days, provided that the terms of the agreement were not clearly abusive.


The Belgian law of 28 May 2019 amending the Law of 2 August 2002 partially corrected this problem by providing that (i) the parties may not agree on a payment period exceeding 60 days if the creditor is an SME and the debtor is not an SME and that (ii) where a time limit is set for checking the invoice (verification period), it may not exceed 30 days. Therefore, when an SME delivers goods or services to a large company, the contractual payment period may never exceed 90 days.


However, a payment term of 90 days is still too long for many companies, especially SMEs!


The Belgian legislator therefore decided to to toughen the legislation by adopting the law of 14 August 2021.


This law provides that :


- companies may not agree on payment periods exceeding 60 calendar days. Derogations by sector may, however, be provided for by Royal Decree.


- In order to prevent the procedure for the acceptance or verification of the goods or services from extending the time limit for payment, it is now foreseen that this time limit shall form an integral part of the payment term.


- In order to prevent debtors (often large companies) from circumventing shorter payment periods by exerting pressure, it is now stipulated that any agreement on the date of receipt of the invoice is prohibited and that the debtor must provide the creditor with all the necessary information to enable him to issue the invoice within a strict deadline.


- Lastly, in order to prevent debtors from urging their creditor not to claim interest or a flat-rate compensation when the amount due is not paid by the due date, the law specifies that the amount due is automatically increased by interest and a lump sum. So there is no room for discussion.


Finally, in order to prevent debtors from pressuring their creditors not to charge interest or a lump sum when the amount due is not paid by the due date, the law specifies that the amount due is automatically increased by interest and a lump sum payment. So there’s no room for discussion.