Payment Terms: The Government Takes a Harder Line

2024 Payment Deadlines Observatory Report: an alarming finding

The 2024 report from the Payment Terms Observatory  sounds the alarm: late payments are worsening in the private sector, reaching 13.6 days in 2024, compared to 12.6 days in 2023. This is a worrying trend.

In Response to This Deterioration, the Government Takes a Harder Line

In a press release dated 11 July 2025 , the office of Ms. Véronique Louwagie announced plans to strengthen administrative controls and drastically raise the maximum fines for non-compliance with legal payment deadlines.

The stakes: the cap could increase from €2 million to 1% of global turnover. If implemented, this measure would have a significant impact, particularly for large corporate groups.

A Priority Area of Oversight for the DGCCRF

The trend is already toward Severity: two record Fines of €1,950,000 have just been imposed by the DGCCRF Orders and Sanctions  | Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty

Guide for Best Practices

To support businesses, the Payment Terms Observatory has published a Guide to Best Practices for limiting late payments in business-to-business relationships.

Its objective:

• Identify recurring causes of delays,
• Propose concrete solutions to prevent these situations,
• Sustainably improve payment practices at all stages of the commercial relationship.

In this context, it is in companies’ best interests to anticipate and structure their invoicing and payment processes.

Compliance with payment deadlines is no longer merely a matter of regulatory conformity: it has become a strategic imperative.

VERTICE provides upstream support to secure your practices, and downstream advocacy to protect your interests in the event of an audit by the authorities.