Please tell me exactly about the extinctive prescription of commercial claims.

Under Article 64 of the Commercial Act, unlike an ordinary civil claim (with a 10-year extinctive prescription), a commercial claim is subject to a short-term extinctive prescription of five years.

In other words, unless there is a special agreement, the extinctive prescription for a claim or debt arising from a commercial transaction between merchants is completed once five years have passed from the date it arose.

However, depending on the nature of the transaction, a short-term extinctive prescription under the Civil Act may apply first, so you must first accurately determine the nature of the claim.

The case you describe appears to correspond to the price of goods, and under Article 163 of the Civil Act, where it falls under '6. the consideration for products and goods sold by producers and merchants,' a three-year extinctive prescription may apply.

Methods to interrupt the extinctive prescription of a commercial claim include filing a lawsuit claiming payment against the client, or applying for enforcement procedures such as a payment order, provisional attachment, or provisional injunction, and the like.

In addition, where the counterpart client (the debtor) has left a written document acknowledging the debt, the prescription is interrupted, and it runs anew from the time that ground ends.

Therefore, because the extinctive prescription for a commercial claim is shorter than that for an ordinary civil claim, if you have an outstanding receivable for a transaction, we encourage you to protect your rights by interrupting the prescription through legal measures such as those described above.