European Payment Order – Benefits
Enforcement of claims from foreign trading partners from the European Union through a legal action for issuance of the European Payment Order is beneficial in many aspects and constitutes a significantly better solution than the procedure of claim enforcement from EU trading partners based on domestic laws alone.
The most significant benefits of using the EU procedure to claim compensation from Polish debtors by way of a legal action for issuance of the European Payment Order are listed below:
simplified procedure for enforcing the claim reflected in the deformalization in terms of filing a legal action (the court acts only on the basis of description of evidence and statement of the claimant that the data included in the legal action are true),
by-passing the strict provisions regarding evidence – legal provisions (also in Polish law) often foresee a time limit for presenting evidence in court as well as other time restrictions related to collection of evidence by court. These limits are not applicable when the action for issuance of the European Payment Order is filed.
by-passing the additional court procedures, taking account of the fact that the European Payment Order which became enforceable in a Member State where it was issued (eg. Poland) is recognized and enforceable in other Member States without any need to have it declared enforceable and with no possibility to deny its recognition. If a creditor from the EU (eg. a German person) brought an action against a Polish trading partner in a German court in accordance with domestic law (instead of using the procedure of the European Payment Order) then, after having received the court order/payment order, that person would have to file an action in the relevant court of the defendant’s residence or registered office (a Polish court) with a suitable motion as well as go through the procedure of (German) judgment recognition and having the judgment declared enforceable, before having the case directed to a Polish debt collector. If the debtor happened to move to another country in the meantime (from instance from Poland to Spain), then the procedure of judgment recognition would have to be conducted again (in a Spanish court). he costs of the whole process in this case would significantly increase and obtaining compensation is spread in time. These negative aspects are missing as far as the use of the European Payment Order procedure is concerned.
greater chance that the counter party will not raise objections – the procedure is poorly known and the debtor may be discouraged or simply may not be aware of how to raise objections after having received the European Payment Order,
significant cost saving,
quickness of handling the matter as compared to the use of domestic procedure followed by the procedure of recognition of the judgment by the Polish court (as exemplified above).