Commercial disputes on the rise in 2023 and construction is not spared

“The year 2023 was marked once again by a renewal of tensions between economic actors”, “in an inflationary context”, indicated in a press release the business mediator Pierre Pelouzet.

The mediator, who supports relations between manufacturers and distributors outside the food sector, handled 1.940 referrals in 2023, compared to 1.600 the previous year, starting to increase for the first time since 2020 (3.538 referrals). Since this peak linked to Covid, referrals have only decreased, while remaining at much higher levels than before.

“We have had twice as many requests over the last four years as over the ten years preceding,” summarizes Pierre Pelouzet for AFP, judging this break between “the world before and the world after” “quite phenomenal”. 2020".

“Companies have realized that faced with all the shocks that we have experienced over the past four years, the solution (of) dialogue, the solution (of) mediation, was really an adequate tool,” he said.

Tensions linked to the rise in energy prices, already very present in 2022, "continued to mobilize the mediator's teams throughout last year" and represented "10% of mediation requests, with peaks at 20% in certain months", specifies the press release.

The building continued to suffer in 2023, but for “other reasons” than the previous year, Mr. Pelouzet told AFP, ahead of the presentation of his assessment.

Until now linked to "raw materials", referrals in this sector have arisen more from disputes around "construction" in 2023, due to the increase in interest rates and the postponement of purchases in new construction.

An emerging trend appears in telecoms (13% of referrals): an "increase" in disputes relating to linked contracts - linking several parties around the rental of equipment for several years -, which now represent a quarter of these telecom referrals.

Concerning the nature of requests, payment conditions, and in particular payment deadlines, "constitute the primary reason for referrals" and represent 25% of cases processed, indicates the press release.

“We thought we were winning this battle” of delays, but an “explosion” took place in 2020, explained Pierre Pelouzet during the presentation of the report. Since then, delays have decreased, appearing “on average at 12 days”, without however returning to their 2019 levels, and “according to the latest estimates”, they are even “on the rise”, regretted the mediator.

In addition to the referrals, the business mediator also had to manage 2.360 requests, mainly requests for information from entrepreneurs or referrals redirected to other business support systems.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.