Proposed EU Late Payment Regulation: 30-day maximum payment terms in B2B transactions
Date note: Placeholder – no application date exists. Commission proposal COM(2023) 533 is stalled: Parliament adopted its position in 2024, the Council has not agreed a general approach. Existing Directive 2011/7/EU (60-day default) continues to apply
What changes
The Commission proposed replacing the Late Payment Directive with a regulation capping B2B and B2G payment terms at 30 days, making late-payment interest automatic and creating national enforcement authorities. The file has not progressed in the Council since 2024, so no date is fixed.
Who is affected
All businesses, especially SMEs supplying larger customers on long payment terms.
Sizes: micro, small, medium, large · Sectors: All sectors · Applies if: We invoice other businesses (B2B)
What to do
No action required yet. Watch the file; if adopted, contracts with payment terms above 30 days would need to be renegotiated and invoicing/dunning systems updated to charge statutory interest automatically.
Sources
- EUR-Lex – Proposal COM(2023) 533 on combating late payment (eur-lex.europa.eu)
- European Parliament Legislative Train – Revision of the late payments directive (www.europarl.europa.eu)
Last verified 7 September 2026. Informational only, not legal advice.