Trade Creditors

What are the options for trade creditors?

To prevent problems from occurring in the first place, we consider it our main duty to advise you on making your contracts insolvency-proof even before your customers are at risk of insolvency. If difficulties arise nonetheless, the situation calls for rapid action. To avert any damage to your business, we will advise you in detail on urgent measures to take as soon as a customer is in financial distress. If necessary, we will help you assert your claims in insolvency proceedings and represent your interests in reorganisation proceedings in court and out of court.

• Enforcing and collecting on claims (incl. lodging claims, enforcing claims for segregation or separate settlement, representation in insolvency proceedings, and protection of creditors’ interests)
• Drafting insolvency-proof supply contracts
• Urgent measures triggered by indicators of customer distress
• Representation in court and out of court to defend against avoidance actions of insolvency practitioners (clawback actions)
   

What are the effects of these measures?

In the best-case scenario, we can design your supply contracts to protect you from being affected if your customers’ financial situation deteriorates. Moreover, expert legal advice can significantly reduce the damage caused to your business by a trade debtor’s crisis and lower the risk of subsequent avoidance actions.

What are the key issues to consider?

If customers are in distress, it is crucial to take quick and targeted action. For instance, while there is only a brief window (60 days) for attempting out-of-court reorganisation to avoid insolvency, it is nevertheless a good idea to refrain from certain business transactions with customers around the point in time when insolvency could occur, in order to guard against avoidance actions.
In this context, it is all the more essential that you are able to rely on experienced legal experts in crisis situations.