Predmetom rada su odredbe Direktive 2011/7/EU o suzbijanju zakašnjenja s plaćanjem u trgovačkim ugovorima kojima se državama članicama Europske unije nalaže u nacionalnom pravu postaviti granice stranačkoj autonomiji u pogledu ugovaranja rokova plaćanja u ugovorima među poduzetnicima. Cilj rada je ispitati postiže li se uređenjem sadržanim u Direktivi prikladna razina zaštite vjerovnika novčanih obveza od negativnih učinaka zakašnjenja s plaćanjem te ocijeniti je li intenzitet intervencije u slobodu ugovaranja primjeren ciljevima koji se Direktivom nastoje ostvariti. Analiziraju se odredbe Direktive o ugovornim rokovima plaćanja i o ispunjenju novčanih obveza plaćanjem u obrocima, uz iznošenje prijedloga de lege ferenda.The paper presents the provisions of Directive 2011/7/EU on combating late payment in commercial transactions by virtue of which the EU Member States are obliged to limit the contractual freedom in contracts between undertakings. The Directive’s rules on the contractual payment period of 60 calendar days and on the exceptionally longer contractual payment period, as well as on payment schedules providing for instalments, are also analysed. The author argues the position that, if the payment period is not fixed in the contract but the contract stipulates that the determination of the payment period is left to the will of one of the contracting parties, then such unilaterally decided payment period should be considered as the payment period fixed in the contract in the sense of the provisions of Directive 2011/7/EU. The same solution should be applied when the payment period is determined through commercial customs or practice established between undertakings. As one of the possible improvements of the legal regime established by the Directive, the author proposes a restriction of the contractual freedom of undertakings regarding the stipulation of the date of commencement of contractual payment period in order to prevent potential abuse of freedom of contract
