Something promised, something due. While Bercy regularly brandishes the threat of “Name and Shame”, the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Repression (DGCCRF) has just revealed a list of around forty companies which do not respect the payment deadlines imposed by the Commercial Code. This, accompanied by their sanctions. And the fines are hefty to say the least.
At the top of the podium, Veolia, which received a fine of 1.6 million euros. The global water and waste giant is closely followed by Showroomprivé, whose pledge amounts to 1.3 million euros. Brico Dépôt and SFR must also pay a tidy sum. Respectively 1.1 million and 1 million euros.
Also pinned are fashion and beauty brands, like Printemps or L’Oréal, banks but also laboratories, like Boiron which must pay around 250,000 euros. With a fine of 200,000 euros, McDonald’s is also one of the bad students who have decided to escape the rules set by the commercial code.
60 days from invoice date
Because since 2009, “the deadlines [de paiement] must not exceed sixty days from the date of the invoice, or forty-five days at the end of the month,” insists the DGCCRF, which recalls that any delay in paying an invoice is detrimental to the profitability of creditor companies. “These “delays have a negative impact on their cash flow, on their competitiveness, and even for the most vulnerable among them, on their existence”, argues the authority attached to the Ministry of the Economy.
In its article L. 441-16, the Commercial Code provides in particular for the sanction of non-compliance with the legal rules relating to payment deadlines by an administrative fine of a maximum amount of 75,000 euros for a natural person and 2 million euros for a legal entity, namely any company or association under the 1901 law.