Under the Act amending the Act of 2 August 2002 on combating late payment in commercial transactions, enterprises will no longer be able to agree upon payment terms of more than 60 days if the creditor is an SME and the debtor is not an SME.
In other words, in a commercial transaction with an SME, a non-SME may no longer contractually impose a payment term of more than 60 days.
An SME is defined as an enterprise which, at the time of the conclusion of a commercial transaction, does not exceed more than one of the following criteria:
- an annual average of 50 employees;
- an annual turnover of EUR 9,000,000 excluding value added tax; and
- a balance sheet total of EUR 4,500,000.
A clause providing for a payment term exceeding 60 days will be deemed not to have been written.
This Act was adopted in Parliament on 25 April 2019 and will enter into force six months after its publication in the Belgian Official Gazette.
In addition to the B2B Act of 4 April 2019, which is discussed in an earlier Eubelius Flash, this is another important legislative change for businesses.
