Commercial Law
- National Council of the Slovak Republic adopted an amendment to Act no 513/1991 Coll the Commercial Code which implements Directive 2011/7/EU on combating late payment in commercial transactions. It amends and supplements the provisions of the Commercial Code on unfair competition, fulfilment of pecuniary obligations, legalization of signature in respect of certain resolutions in limited liability companies and election of supervisory board members by the employees. The most important change is the enactment of a maximum period for payment that may be fixed in a contract, which must not exceed 60 calendar days from the day when the debtor receives a request for payment from a creditor. The law allows the parties to agree on a longer period for payment, but only if it is not grossly unfair to the creditor. In absence of a contractual arrangement, the law lays down a maximum 30 days period for payment. If the debtor is late with the payment, the creditor is also entitled to a lump sum of EUR 40 as a compensation for costs related with the recovery of the payment. The creditor may claim this lump sum in addition to any other claim and without prior notification. However, the creditor may not claim the lump sum if the debtor is a consumer. Further, the amendment introduces a new term “unfair contractual terms and practices”, which are invalid as of law.
- The National Council of the Slovak Republic has adopted Act no 28/2013 Coll which amends and supplements Act no 25/2006 Coll on Public Procurement. Its main purpose is to speed up and make more efficient some public procurement procedures. The amendment makes it possible to evidence the fulfilment of tender participation conditions by a simple affidavit (in Slovak čestné vyhlásenie); only the tenderer to which the contract is awarded will be subsequently obliged to provide the documents in the form requested by the contracting authority. The amendment further implements the “concentration principle” into the objection procedure (in Slovak konanie o námietkach). Under the amendment, the office will deal with the objections (in Slovak námietky) only at two moments of the procedure: after the assessment of the conditions of participation and after the assessment of the criteria for award of the contract. In respect of above-limit public contracts (in Slovak nadlimitné zákazky) funded even partially by the European Union, the contractor may request the office to perform an ex ante check of the tender documents. However, this check does not cover the technical specification, functional characteristics and professional requirements for the contract. Finally, the amendment introduces a new sanction under which atenderer may be banned from participation in public procurement for the period of three years(without possibility to mitigate the period), if the tenderer presents falsified, invalid or untrue documents.
- On 1 Febuary 2013 entered into force governmental Regulation no 21/2013 Coll which provides for the statutory rates of interests for late payment (default interest). Under the Regulation the statutory default interest rate equals to the basic interest rate of the European Central Bank applicable at the first day of the delay with payment, increased by nine percentage points.Alternatively, the creditor may apply default interest rate equal to the basic interest rate of the European Central Bank applicable at the first day of the respective half of the calendar year in which the delay occurred increased by eight percentage points. The default interest rates determined by of the alternatives above are fixed and are used for the whole period of delay. The Regulation will apply for legal relations entered into after 31 January 2013. If the contractual relation was entered into on or before 31 January, the default interest rate will be governed by the rules of the Civil Code applicable until 31 January 2013, also for the delay which extends after 31 January 2013.
Civil Law
- The National Council of the Slovak Republic approved the proposal of amendment to governmental Regulation no 87/1995 Coll which significantly changes the statutory default interest rate under the Civil Code (as opposed to the default interest rate under the Commercial Code). Under the amendment the statutory default interest rate is equal to the basic interest rate of the European Central Bank applicable at the first day of delay increased by five percentage points (as opposed to eight percentage points under the previous regulation). The new statutory default interest rate is fixed – once the interest rate is set, it will apply during the whole period of delay. The new regulation applies only to legal relations subject to the Civil Code which were entered into on 1 February 2013 or later.