By law of 2 August 2002, Belgium has implemented the European Directive 2000/35/EC on combating late payment in commercial transactions into national law. This paper analyses the provisions of the Belgian law and examines to which extent the law fully complies with the European Directive. After examining the scope and the main principles of the law and of the directive, we specifically examine the relationship between the new law of 2 August 2002 and the existing techniques in general contract law with respect to interests for late payment and contract law penalties. Finally, we analyse to which extent lawyers' fees incurred by late payment can be incorporated into contract law clauses after the law of 2002.