B2B debt collection, for commercial invoices between businesses — not consumer debt.

B2B debt collection is the recovery of past-due commercial invoices between businesses — a supplier owed by a distributor, a logistics company owed by a shipper, a manufacturer owed by a buyer. The work has four layers. First, verification: confirming the debtor entity still exists, where it operates, and whether it can pay. Then amicable pressure: demands and negotiation directed at accounts payable or the principal, not a household. Then escalation: if the debtor doesn't respond, attorneys use the fast-track instrument available in that jurisdiction to convert the invoice into an enforceable judgment. Finally, enforcement and transfer: converting the judgment into cash.

The creditor deals with one point of contact and one dashboard, whether the debtor is across the state line or across an ocean.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act — the federal law most people associate with "debt collection" — governs how consumer debt can be pursued: what collectors can say, when they can call, what disclosures are required. None of it applies to a business debtor. Commercial collection instead runs on the Uniform Commercial Code for sale-of-goods claims, general contract law for services, and each state's own court procedure and statute of limitations — which varies far more by state than most creditors expect, from Texas's 4-year window to Illinois's 10-year one.

Internationally, the same distinction holds: the EU's Late Payment Directive, for example, grants automatic statutory interest and a fixed recovery cost to B2B creditors specifically — protections a consumer claim wouldn't get, and wouldn't need.

Four checks separate a serious commercial agency from a consumer-collection shop that also takes B2B files. Ask whether they work business debt exclusively, or bolt it onto a consumer operation — the negotiating posture and legal toolkit are different. Get the fee in writing before you place anything, including what happens on failure and who covers legal costs if the file goes to court. Ask how you'll track the file; a live portal beats waiting on email updates. And ask what they turn down: an agency that accepts every file, including legally dead debt or debtors already in bankruptcy, is selling placement volume, not collection.

Reviews at scale outweigh testimonials. A pattern repeated across tens of thousands of rated cases is hard to fake.

In the US, a written commercial contract typically carries its own agreed interest and remedies clauses, enforceable under state contract law and, for sale-of-goods claims, the UCC. Absent a contract clause, most states still recognize a right to statutory pre-judgment interest on a liquidated commercial debt. Limitation periods vary sharply by state — from 4 years in Texas and California to 10 in Illinois — and the clock generally runs from the invoice due date, not the invoice date.

Internationally, EU Directive 2011/7/EU automatically entitles a B2B creditor to statutory interest at the ECB rate plus 8 points and a fixed €40 recovery cost per invoice, without any demand required. The specifics change by jurisdiction; the principle doesn't — a documented commercial debt already carries more legal weight than most creditors realize before they ask.

Honesty costs less than a wasted placement. If your debtor is already in bankruptcy proceedings, standard collection isn't the right tool: the file belongs with an insolvency practitioner who can file your claim, and no pressure recovers what the law doesn't already grant. If the debtor disputes the quality or delivery of what was sold, and that dispute is substantive rather than tactical, the file is a legal dispute, not a collection — treating it as one wastes months. And if the debt has passed the statute of limitations in the applicable state or country, no collector brings it back.

Everything else — debtors who've gone quiet, moved, restructured, or simply assume a small supplier won't chase them — is exactly what B2B collection exists for. Place the file: the free case review will tell you which category it's in.