Position on the Late Payment Regulation

Currently, a legislative process is underway at the European Union level aimed at adopting a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on combating late payment in commercial transactions(the Late Payment Regulation).

The proposed changes aimed at combating payment delays result from the primary need to protect small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe. Large enterprises collaborating with SMEs are keenly interested in supporting additional safeguards to enable stable and long-term relationships. The initiative aims to assist SMEs by revising existing EU regulations on payments to promote a decisive shift towards a culture of prompt payments.

AmCham agrees with the main objective of the regulations being conducted; nonetheless, the regulation contains provisions that, in our opinion, are excessive and do not contribute to the intended goal of protecting SMEs. Moreover, they impose unnecessary obligations on large companies, potentially negatively impacting their operations. Considering the significance of the topic, AmCham has prepared its position paper and forwarded it to Mr. Krzysztof Hetman, the Minister of Development and Technology. This paper could potentially be utilized by the Polish Government in its efforts at the European Union level.

In our position paper, we have highlighted two key demands from the perspective of our companies.

1. The exclusion of transactions between large enterprises from regulatory oversight, as they are perceived to have no impact on the overarching objectives of the regulation and fail to offer additional benefits to SMEs.
2. The exclusion of supply chain financing from regulatory coverage.

The full position of AmCham can be found here.