Paris (AFP)
Telecom operator SFR has received a record fine of 3.7 million euros for its repeated payment delays, said Bercy Monday.
"The illegal cash retention" carried out by SFR with these delays is "the highest ever recorded" in investigations of this type, indicated the Directorate General of competition, consumption and the repression of the frauds (DGCCRF) in a communicated.
"This is why a level close to the maximum fine legally incurred (...) has been retained," she added.
SFR had already been sanctioned for similar events in 2015.
According to the statement made by the DGCCRF in the last six months of 2017, SFR paid 32% of its late invoices, with a "weighted average delay" of 28 days compared to the legal payment deadlines (60 days or 45 days). months, excluding specific deadlines).
These practices correspond to "a cash retention of more than 72 million euros," said the DGCCRF.
In 2015, the bloodhounds of Bercy had found that 62% of the invoices of SFR were settled late compared to the deadlines of legal payments, with a weighted average delay of 28 days.
Failure to meet payment deadlines "is a source of risk for the entire economy," Bercy said in the statement.
"Companies with customer turnarounds longer than 60 days carry a significant share of bank credit in the short term".
This non-compliance also creates "a risk of contagion cash-flow difficulties between companies," according to the same source.
Fines for late payment of such an amount are very rare, most of which are in the tens of thousands of euros, or even hundreds of thousands of euros.
In 2019, only another sanction exceeding one million euros was pronounced for this reason: a fine of 1.8 million euros against EDF, according to the site of the DGCCRF.
© 2019 AFP