The Metropolitan Court of Appeal terminated the liquidation proceedings against a debtor company because the creditor initiating the liquidation did not certify that the invoice sent via e-mail had been received by the debtor.
According to the court decision, the creditor emailed the invoice that was the subject of the liquidation proceedings, which the debtor did not fulfill nor did he dispute. For this reason, the creditor called on the debtor in due time to perform, which he repeated on one occasion. The court of first instance ordered the liquidation of the debtor but the Metropolitan Court of Appeal, acting on the debtor’s appeal, terminated the proceedings. The court highlighted in its ruling that the parties agreed in their contract that the receipt of the invoices had to be truly substantiated in order to obtain legal effect which the creditor could not prove. Unlike the contract between the parties, the Hungarian Civil Code does not require receipt of the invoice. This practice has developed both in B2B relations and in the case of invoices sent to consumers. The legal effect of the invoice is therefore, unless otherwise stipulated in the contract, not related to the delivery but to the arrival of the invoice, which, in case of an email can be deemed immediately upon sending.
When a customer does not pay you, always check the contract and see what provisions apply to sending invoices. If there is no word on certified receipt in the contract or a clause to the same effect, then the invoice could be sent by e-mail and it does not matter whether the consignee has certified the receipt. However, if a certified receipt is required, it is advisable to have it declared by the debtor. If the debtor states that he has not received the invoice, it is advisable in this case to resend it or otherwise arrange for the invoice to be received. It is therefore worthwhile to provide the contract with a clause that will make it clear to everyone when the invoice obtains legal effects. Please note that in order to use electronic invoicing it is required by law to obtain the consent of the customer anyway; therefore, when obtaining this consent, it is worth regulating the above issue in the contract.
At Visegrad + Legal, we believe that a contract should work best when one party is unwilling or unable to perform under the contract, while a handshake is enough for everything else.