Abstract
The text deals with interpretation of Art. 10 of the Act of 8 March 2013 on terms of payment in commercial transactions, implementing into Polish law the 2011/7/EU directive. The provision in question specifies premises for reimbursement of the costs of debt recovery due to the creditor in a lump-sum of 40 euro, referring to the statutory prerequisites for demanding interest for late payment specified in Art. 7.1 and Art. 8.1 of the Polish Act. In its explicit meaning Art. 10.1 is, however, unreasonably selective, leaving out the possibility to specify the term of payment by contract, which is allowed in Art. 7.3 and Art. 8.4. What is more, this selectiveness of the Polish Act is hard to be reconciled with the EU directive, which does not differentiate between statutory- and contractually-derived terms in granting the right to the lump-sum compensation. The Supreme Court Resolution of 11 December 2015,