According to a court filing flagged across a number of German legal aggregation sites, language services provider (LSP) Landexx has filed for bankruptcy.

Information on the LSP is now hard to come by, with Landexx’s website apparently out of commission. As a private company, Landexx’s annual financial reports are not readily available to the public, either.

Landexx, headed by Managing Director Christel Stemmer, offered a range of services, including translation, interpreting, language training, and desktop publishing. 

Language professionals informed colleagues of the news. German-English translator Jill Sommer, for instance, advised freelancers in a blog post to contact the bankruptcy trustee, Stephan Höltershinken, regarding any unpaid invoices. She also warned others not to accept translation assignments from the company. 

There had been rumblings about Landexx among freelancers online for at least a few years prior to the LSP’s filing for bankruptcy.

“They were an excellent client, always very professional, EXCEPT that I always had to chase late payments. They often paid 3 to 4 months late,” read a November 2020 complaint by one translator, who said she began working with Landexx in 2009.

The freelancer explained that she had to “chase payments by email and by phone,” and had to wait a year — and hire a lawyer — to receive payment for six outstanding invoices.

“[T]hey have told my lawyer that they will no longer be sending me any work, even though I did nothing wrong,” she added. “I believe that other freelance translators must be in the same position.”

Another translator wrote on Reddit in May 2024 that they were pursuing legal action against Landexx via a court order for payment “[a]fter countless reminder e-mails that have been ignored.” 

Landexx also had a mixed reputation on job board ProZ, where the LSP’s “Blue Board affiliation”— based on freelancers’ willingness to work with the company again — stood at two out of five stars. A December 2022 staff note indicated that “[t]his outsourcer has been banned from posting jobs at ProZ.com.” Details regarding Landexx’s specific case were not disclosed.

“Use of the site in a dishonest or fraudulent manner will result in termination of site use and associated privileges,” ProZ’s termination policy states, though ProZ also “reserves the right to refuse access to this site to any party without giving a reason.”