Imagine...💭 You work in the accounting department of a Swedish company that does business throughout the EU. It´s the end of the month, and you note that a Portuguese distributor, despite several demands and a formal notice of default, still hasn’t paid an outstanding invoice - although the distributor hasn´t contested it, either.

You would like to commence a procedure to compel payment, but you pessimistically assume that doing so would cost more than the amount of the outstanding invoice itself.

At lunch you explain the situation to a colleague who works in the legal department. He refers to something called the "European order for payment procedure", as well as to a "European small claims procedure". This sounds like music to your ears, but is difficult to understand without legal background...

Read our latest In the Picture ”An unpaid cross-border invoice? Don´t just sit there!“, written by our senior associate Benjamin Magnus and associate Elisabeth Gabizon.