LEGISLATIVE PUSH TO SUPPORT SMES
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A record 68,564 bankruptcies registered in 2025 necessitates a structural response to the €17 billion in outstanding invoices, two-thirds of which are attributable to the cash flow strategies of large private groups.
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A latest ceiling on penalties, indexed to 1% of global turnover, aims to neutralize the financial advantage of late payment for ordering parties, citing Thales Avionics as an example.
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The proposed law innovates with a subrogation system financed by Bpifrance, allowing VSE-SMEs to obtain immediate settlement of their public receivables while transferring the recovery risk to a state structure.
The number of business failures continues to climb, reaching new highs. According to recent figures from the Banque de France, published on February 6, 68,564 companies went bankrupt in 2025. This represents a 3.5% increase year-over-year. Late payments are a significant contributing factor to these failures. The annual report for 2024 from the Observatory of Payment Terms reveals that late payments increase the risk of default by 25%, and even 42% when those delays exceed 60 days.
In September, Olivier Rietmann, the president of the Senate delegation for businesses and a Senator (LR) from Haute-Saône, tackled the issue, initially with the support of then-Minister for SMEs Véronique Louwagie. After thirty hearings, the Senator convinced the government to add his bill aimed at combating payment failures to the legislative agenda. The text is scheduled for a public session this Thursday, February 19.
The bill focuses on the €17 billion in late payments recorded in 2024. Of that amount, €12 billion is attributable to large private groups and €5 billion to the public sector – the State, local authorities, and public administrations. Modest and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remain the primary victims, accounting for €9 billion in late payments, followed by remarkably small enterprises (VSEs) and mid-sized enterprises (ETIs), each impacted by nearly €4 billion.
Strengthening Sanctions for Private Companies
