Pregledni rad
The Limits of Contractual Freedom Regarding the Determination of Payment Period in Contracts Between Undertakings in the Law of European Union
Ivan Tot
; Ekonomski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
The paper presents the provisions of Directive 2011/7/EU on combating late payment in commercial transactions by virtue of which the EU Member States are obliged to limit the contractual freedom in contracts between undertakings. The Directive’s rules on the contractual payment period of 60 calendar days and on the exceptionally longer contractual payment period, as well as on payment schedules providing for instalments, are also analysed. The author argues the position that, if the payment period is not fixed in the contract but the contract stipulates that the determination of the payment period is left to the will of one of the contracting parties, then such unilaterally decided payment period should be considered as the payment period fixed in the contract in the sense of the provisions of Directive 2011/7/EU. The same solution should be applied when the payment period is determined through commercial customs or practice established between undertakings. As one of the possible improvements of the legal regime established by the Directive, the author proposes a restriction of the contractual freedom of undertakings regarding the stipulation of the date of commencement of contractual payment period in order to prevent potential abuse of freedom of contract.
Ključne riječi
freedom of contract; payment period; Directive 2000/35/EC; Directive 2011/7/EU
Hrčak ID:
124809
URI
Datum izdavanja:
1.7.2014.
Posjeta: 2.233 *