Spanish law caps B2B payment terms, starts the interest clock automatically, and attaches a fixed indemnity to every overdue invoice. Most foreign creditors claim none of it.
B2B payment terms in Spain are capped at 60 calendar days (Ley 3/2004, implementing Directive 2011/7/EU). From day 61, statutory late-payment interest accrues automatically — no reminder needed — at the ECB reference rate plus 8 points, and every overdue invoice carries a minimum €40 recovery-cost indemnity (Art. 8). A right that isn't claimed is a discount your debtor gave themselves.
You've been paid late by Spanish customers often enough that you've priced it in — quietly extended your own working capital to cover their float, and called it the cost of doing business there. It isn't. Spanish law already compensates you for every one of those days; your debtors simply rely on foreign creditors not knowing it. Below: the accrual monitor showing what a real overdue invoice accumulates, the 60-day ceiling and where your file sits against it, and how sector reality compares to the statute — starting with the number your debtor hopes you never calculate.
The interest is automatic in law and nearly invisible in practice. Foreign creditors don't claim it because their demand letters don't cite it; Spanish debtors don't volunteer it for obvious reasons. Attaching the accrual calculation to the first formal demand changes the negotiation: the debtor is now watching a number grow daily, and settling the principal starts to look like the debtor's discount rather than the creditor's concession. That reframing — not the interest itself — is where the leverage lives.
The worst offender — retention disputes compound structural late payment.
Perishables carry a stricter 30-day rule — often exceeded anyway.
Improved in recent years, but regional variance remains wide.
No. Under Ley 3/2004 interest accrues automatically from the day after the due date (or the 60-day ceiling if terms were longer). The reminder matters for negotiation, not for accrual.
Not against the 60-day statutory ceiling. Terms exceeding it are void in that respect — accrual runs from day 61 regardless of what the debtor's purchase conditions say.
Yes, within the limitation period — though as a standalone claim its economics rarely justify litigation. It's most effective bundled into a live collection file as leverage.
The ECB's reference rate plus eight percentage points, fixed semi-annually and published in the BOE. It applies automatically to B2B debts from the day after due date — no contract clause, no demand letter, no court order required to start the accrual.
Yes — Art. 8 of Ley 3/2004 attaches a fixed €40 recovery-cost indemnity to each overdue invoice, per invoice, not per debtor. Where actual recovery costs exceed it, the reasonable excess is claimable on top. Ten late invoices means €400 before interest.
The statutory default applies: 30 calendar days from receipt of the invoice or of the goods or services, whichever is later. Silence in the contract doesn't buy the debtor time — it shortens it, since the 30-day default is stricter than the 60-day ceiling.
Clauses excluding interest or the €40 indemnity are presumed abusive and void when grossly unfair to the creditor (Art. 9). A debtor pointing at their own purchase conditions as an interest shield is usually pointing at an unenforceable clause.
We calculate the accrual, cite it in the first formal demand, and collect it with the principal. Assessment is free; you pay only on recovery.
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