Late payment of bills has been a long-standing problem in the UK. Many businesses, especially smaller firms, have experienced problems where their customers delay payment for long periods. A particular complaint has been that the slow payers have often been much larger companies, deliberately delaying payment to smaller businesses.
This Act sets out to assist businesses faced with late payment problems. It does this by adding a number of rules to contracts between businesses.
The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 came into force on the first of November 1998. It has since been amended to bring it into line with a recent european directive (2000/35/EC).