• 8 December 2022 witnessed the amendment to the Act on counteracting excessive delays in commercial transactions entering into force.
• The current regulations have been clarified and simplified, and this will allow for the acceleration of the proceedings and, consequently, for more effective and faster elimination of gridlocks.
• Furthermore, the President of the UOKiK Tomasz Chróstny, issued five decisions in cases concerning payment gridlocks. He imposed financial penalties on two companies totalling over PLN 400,000.

On 14 November 2022, the President signed the act amending the act on counteracting excessive delays in commercial transactions and the act on public finance. The new regulations come into force on 8 December 2022.

“The amendment to the provisions on combating payment gridlocks will speed up and improve the conduct of proceedings. This will enable a more effective and quicker reactions to an undesirable phenomenon of delaying the fulfilment of financial obligations”, says Tomasz Chróstny, President of the UOKiK.

The President of the Office obtained the powers to address to entrepreneurs the so-called soft calls, without the need to initiate administrative proceedings.  Upon receiving such a call, the entrepreneur will be able to provide explanations regarding the diagnosed risk of payment gridlocks. He will also have the opportunity to improve the payment culture in relation to their trading partners.

The legislator also decided to change the formula that will form the basis for calculating administrative fines. At the same time, the amendment introduces the institution of the so-called “fine modulation”, which involves taking into account – when calculating administrative fines – both mitigating circumstances (resulting in a reduction of the penalty) and aggravating circumstances (on the basis of which the penalty will be strengthened).

Decisions imposing a penalty for excessive delays in meeting financial obligations

The President of the UOKiK issued five decisions in which he found excessive delays in meeting financial obligations by entrepreneurs. He imposed two penalties, whereas, in the case of three entities, he found that there were reasons to refrain from imposing a financial sanction.

The first fine concerns Trumpf Huettinger and amounts to over PLN 275,000. The entrepreneur is engaged in the production of electrical energy switchgear and control equipment. The course of the proceedings found that from February to April 2020 the company was late in paying 6,561 financial obligations to 531 trading partners, and the longest delay was 113 days. The largest sum of delays in relation to one of the trading partners amounted to over PLN 4.3 million.

The second fine (over PLN 127,000) was imposed on the company called Ciech Soda Polska. It is an entity operating in the area of production of inorganic chemicals. In the period July – September 2020, the company failed to make timely payments to 137 trading partners, and the longest delay was 248 days. In the analysed period, the largest sum of delays for one entity amounted to over PLN 2.5 million.

Three fine waivers

The provisions on payment gridlocks provide that the President of the UOKiK refrains from imposing a penalty if, in the period under investigation, the sum of cash benefits received by companies after the due date exceeds the payment gridlock generated by them. These situations were the case in relation to three entrepreneurs: Stock Polska, a producer of alcohols, Kolporter, a company dealing in the wholesale of household goods, and Farmacol-Logistyka, an entity from the warehousing and storage of goods industry.

Visit the website on payment gridlocks

Examples of calculations in which fines are imposed for specific amounts payable, as well as crucial information
regarding the competencies of the President of the UOKiK in connection with payment gridlocks, may be found on a specific website. What are payment gridlocks? When can the President of the Office investigate them? How can I report a business partner who has failed to make a payment? Who may file such a report? Answers to these and many other questions may be found at zatoryplatnicze.uokik.gov.pl.

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