Article 7 — Preferences

1. Member States shall ensure that detrimental legal acts benefitting a creditor or a group of creditors by satisfaction or collateralisation are void, voidable or unenforceable where they were perfected: (a) within the three months prior to the submission of the request that led to the opening of the insolvency proceedings or, in the absence of such a request, within the three months prior to the date of the resolution to commence insolvency proceedings, provided that the debtor was unable to pay its debts as they fell due in accordance with national law; or (b) after the submission of the request or the date of the resolution referred to in point (a) and before the opening of insolvency proceedings. 2. If a due claim of a creditor was satisfied or secured as owed, Member States shall ensure that detrimental legal acts are void, voidable or unenforceable at least if: (a) the conditions laid down in paragraph 1 are met; and (b) that creditor knew that the debtor was unable to pay its debts as they fell due in accordance with national law, that a request for the opening of insolvency proceedings had been submitted or that, in the absence of such a request, a resolution to commence insolvency proceedings had been made. For the purposes of the first subparagraph, point (b), such knowledge shall be presumed if the creditor was a party closely related to the debtor. That presumption shall be rebuttable. 3. Paragraphs 1 and 2 do not apply to the following legal acts: (a) legal acts performed directly in exchange for fair consideration to the benefit of the debtor’s assets; (b) payments on bills of exchange or cheques, where the law that governs bills of exchange or cheques bars the recipient’s claims arising from the bill or cheque against other bill or cheque debtors such as endorsers, the drawer, or the drawee if the recipient refuses the debtor’s payment; (c) legal acts that are not subject to avoidance actions in accordance with Directive 98/26/EC and Directive 2002/47/EC; (d) where relevant, in accordance with national law, legal acts the purpose of which is to satisfy or collateralise claims by social security authorities; (e) the entering into netting arrangements, including close-out netting arrangements, in financial markets, energy markets or other commodity markets, as well as legal acts supporting the operation of such arrangements. For the purposes of the first subparagraph, point (b), Member States shall ensure that the amount paid on the bill or cheque be restituted by the last endorser or, if the latter endorsed the bill on account of a third party, by such party, if the last endorser or the third party knew that the debtor was unable to pay its debts as they fell due in accordance with national law or that a request for the opening of insolvency proceedings had been submitted at the moment of endorsing the bill or having it endorsed. Such knowledge shall be presumed if the last endorser or the third party was a party closely related to the debtor. That presumption shall be rebuttable.