The new act imposes statutory obligations on undertakings which fail to make payments on time, even for payments due before 16 March 2011.
Albeit pursuant to Directive 2011/7/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on combating late payment in commercial transactions, the Slovenian legislator's main objectives go beyond the directive in an aim to:
- strengthen payment discipline and reduce payment delays by inter alia implementing (i) statutory maximum payment period lengths (30, 60 and 120 days); (ii) voidance of grossly unfair contractual provisions; (iii) a fixed sum of EUR 40 for recovery costs (prior to court enforcement proceeding); (iv) a debtor's duty to register its due monetary obligations (including those arising from bills of exchange) in compulsory multilateral set-off);
- publicise information on debtors that have not set their obligations arising out of bills of exchange on time (by establishing a register of bills of exchange protested for non-payment);
- sanction violators (penalties ranging from EUR 100 – 10,000 for an undertaking; EUR 50 – 5,000 for the responsible person within the undertaking).
The scope of the Act is limited to payments made as remuneration for commercial transactions, i.e., delivery of goods or provision of services for remuneration between undertakings or between undertakings and public authorities.
Until the Slovenian government awards a respective concession, the Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services (AJPES) is maintaining the compulsory multilateral set-offs system. However, the same agency is obliged to establish and maintain a register of bills of exchange.
The Act became valid before all the regulations required for the aforementioned records to work were in place. Consequently, some of the provisions will be applicable from 16 June 2011. It is advisable to follow also the information on the AJPES website - http://www.ajpes.si/. The first compulsory sets-off are expected on 15 April 2011.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.