A new report from the EU Payment Observatory documents that 52 percent of all companies in the EU experience problems with late payments, which is an increase of five percentage points in one year. Smaller companies are hit hardest by the development.
- It should not be a privilege to get paid on time. But the reality is unfortunately that across Europe we see that bills are paid very late. Also in Denmark. This is both between companies and when the public sector has to pay companies. It is simply unsustainable, says Jakob Brandt, CEO of SME Denmark, in a press release.
The report shows that the average payment time in the EU is 60.3 days between companies and 69.8 days when the public sector has to pay companies. European companies spend an average of 9.85 hours per week collecting payments, and large companies generally pay later than smaller ones.
According to the report, late payments hinder investment, growth and survival, and the consequences particularly affect small companies, which often have less liquidity and fewer resources to follow up on payments.
- Problems with late payments have a clear bias: SMEs are hit harder than large ones, as small ones generally have less liquidity to fight with, poorer access to financing and fewer resources to collect payments. For politicians who want to stand on the side of small ones against the big bullies in the schoolyard, it should be a no-brainer that something needs to be done here, says Jakob Brandt.
The EU Commission has presented a proposal for a fixed ceiling of 30 days, the establishment of enforcement authorities and sanctions for violations, which SME Denmark supports.
Text, graphics, images, sound, and other content on this website are protected under copyright law. DK Medier reserves all rights to the content, including the right to exploit the content for the purpose of text and data mining, cf. Section 11b of the Copyright Act and Article 4 of the DSM Directive.
Customers with IP agreements/major customer agreements may only share Danish Offshore Industry articles internally for the purpose of handling specific cases. Sharing in connection with specific cases refers to journaling, archiving, or similar uses.
Customers with a personal subscription/login may not share Danish Offshore Industry articles with individuals who do not themselves have a personal subscription to Danish Offshore Industry.
Any deviation from the above requires written consent from DK Medier.
