You delivered the goods, you performed the service, you sent the invoice, you sent three reminders, and your French customer has gone silent. For a foreign company selling into France, this moment feels like a dead end: the debtor is in another country, your team does not speak legal French, and hiring lawyers abroad for a five-figure invoice sounds disproportionate. French law answers this exact situation with one of the fastest creditor procedures in Europe, the injonction de payer, an order that a judge issues without hearing the debtor and that becomes fully enforceable in about two months if nobody objects. The procedure was substantially reformed by Decree No. 2026-96 of 16 February 2026, in force for all orders issued since 1 September 2026, with shorter deadlines and a simpler path to enforcement. This guide walks you through the two stages that matter: first, making your invoice legally enforceable through a formal notice and the late-payment arithmetic French law adds automatically; second, obtaining the payment order and turning it into cash in the debtor’s bank account, even when you run the whole case from abroad.

I. Your French Customer Has Not Paid the Invoice: Formal Notice, Late-Payment Interest and the 2026 Injonction de Payer

A. How a Foreign Creditor Sends a Formal Notice That Starts Interest and Unlocks Penalties?

Before any judge gets involved, French law requires you to put the debtor officially on notice, and it rewards you for doing so. Article 1344 of the Civil Code provides: “Le débiteur est mis en demeure de payer soit par une sommation ou un acte portant interpellation suffisante, soit, si le contrat le prévoit, par la seule exigibilité de l’obligation.” (Article 1344, Civil Code, Légifrance). In practice, this mise en demeure is a formal demand letter, sent by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt or served by a commissaire de justice, the French enforcement officer who replaced the huissier de justice, stating the exact amount due, the invoice references, and a clear demand to pay within a short deadline, typically eight to fifteen days. From abroad, the registered letter works, but service through a commissaire de justice carries more weight and produces an official record of delivery that no debtor can plausibly deny.

The financial effect of that letter is immediate. Article 1231-6 of the Civil Code states: “Les dommages et intérêts dus à raison du retard dans le paiement d’une obligation de somme d’argent consistent dans l’intérêt au taux légal, à compter de la mise en demeure.” (Article 1231-6, Civil Code, Légifrance). Default interest therefore runs from the formal notice, with no need to prove any loss. Where the debtor’s bad faith caused harm beyond the delay itself, the same article allows additional damages, which matters when a customer strings you along for months with false payment promises.

Between businesses, a second and far more generous layer applies automatically. Article L. 441-10 of the Commercial Code caps payment terms: “Le délai convenu entre les parties pour régler les sommes dues ne peut dépasser soixante jours après la date d’émission de la facture.” (Article L. 441-10, Commercial Code, Légifrance). Any clause granting your French customer 90 or 120 days is unenforceable, and the default term without agreement is thirty days from receipt of the goods or performance of the service. Once that term expires, the same article provides: “Les pénalités de retard sont exigibles sans qu’un rappel soit nécessaire.” No reminder is needed, and the rate, unless your contract sets a higher one, is “égal au taux d’intérêt appliqué par la Banque centrale européenne à son opération de refinancement la plus récente majoré de 10 points de pourcentage”, the European Central Bank refinancing rate plus ten percentage points, a rate that currently exceeds 12 percent per year. On top of interest, the statute adds: “Tout professionnel en situation de retard de paiement est de plein droit débiteur, à l’égard du créancier, d’une indemnité forfaitaire pour frais de recouvrement, dont le montant est fixé par décret.” That flat recovery fee is set by Article D. 441-5: “Le montant de l’indemnité forfaitaire pour frais de recouvrement prévue au II de l’article L. 441-10 est fixé à 40 euros.” (Article D. 441-5, Commercial Code, Légifrance). Where your actual recovery costs exceed 40 euros, the statute lets you claim documented supplementary compensation. Note that Articles L. 441-9 and L. 441-10 currently apply subject to a deferred repeal on 1 January 2027 as France absorbs the coming European late-payment framework, so claim these rights on invoices issued now rather than later.

Your invoice itself must be in order, because the judge will examine it. Article L. 441-9 opens with the principle: “Tout achat de produits ou toute prestation de service pour une activité professionnelle fait l’objet d’une facturation.” (Article L. 441-9, Commercial Code, Légifrance). Every invoice needs the parties’ names and addresses, the date of sale or service, quantities, precise description, unit prices excluding VAT, applicable VAT, the payment due date, the late-penalty rate, and the 40-euro recovery fee mention. Foreign suppliers frequently omit the penalty rate and the recovery-fee line, which does not destroy the claim but slows the file down. Since 1 September 2026, large companies must also issue invoices electronically under France’s e-invoicing reform, described in our guide to French e-invoicing from 1 September 2026, and a non-compliant invoice gives the debtor a convenient excuse to dispute. Finally, calendar discipline matters: commercial payment claims are subject to five years’ limitation, since “Les obligations nées à l’occasion de leur commerce entre commerçants ou entre commerçants et non-commerçants se prescrivent par cinq ans” (Article L. 110-4, Commercial Code, Légifrance), and the general civil rule sets the same five-year period running “à compter du jour où le titulaire d’un droit a connu ou aurait dû connaître les faits lui permettant de l’exercer” (Article 2224, Civil Code, Légifrance). An old invoice approaching five years should jump to the front of the queue. Our overview for newcomers, Setting Up a Company in France as a Foreign Founder, explains the French paperwork reflexes, including the Kbis extract, the official company identity document issued by the greffe, the court clerk’s office, that lets you verify your debtor still exists before spending a euro on recovery.

B. How Does a Foreign Company Obtain an Injonction de Payer Under the Reformed Fast-Track Rules?

The injonction de payer is a one-sided procedure: the judge rules on your papers alone, without summoning the debtor, which is exactly why it suits a creditor operating from London, New York or Milan. Article 1405 of the Code of Civil Procedure defines the entry ticket: “Le recouvrement d’une créance peut être demandé suivant la procédure d’injonction de payer lorsque : 1° La créance a une cause contractuelle ou résulte d’une obligation de caractère statutaire et s’élève à un montant déterminé” (Article 1405, Code of Civil Procedure, Légifrance). An unpaid invoice for delivered goods or performed services is the textbook case. What does not qualify is equally important: a claim whose very existence or amount is genuinely disputed, for example defective goods the customer formally rejected, belongs in a full trial, and filing it as a payment order wastes time because the debtor’s opposition is then certain.

Jurisdiction follows the debtor, not you. Article 1406 provides: “Le juge territorialement compétent est celui du lieu où demeure le ou l’un des débiteurs poursuivis.” (Article 1406, Code of Civil Procedure, Légifrance). These venue rules are a matter of public policy, so a clause in your general conditions sending disputes to your home courts will not move the payment order elsewhere. Between businesses, the president of the commercial court, the tribunal de commerce, hears the application; where the debtor is an individual or a liberal professional, the president of the judicial court, the tribunal judiciaire, is competent. The official service-public guide to the injonction de payer details the practical filing: standard form Cerfa No. 12946 for the commercial court, with a 33.47-euro registry fee, or Cerfa No. 12948 for the judicial court, free of registry fees, lodged with the greffe of the court where the debtor’s registered office, its siège social, sits.

The application file must be meticulous, because the judge sees only what you attach. Article 1407 requires that “la requête contient l’indication précise du montant de la somme réclamée avec le décompte des différents éléments de la créance, le fondement de celle-ci ainsi que le bordereau des documents justificatifs produits à l’appui de la requête.” (Article 1407, Code of Civil Procedure, Légifrance). Concretely: the contract or order form, delivery slips or acceptance reports, the invoices with their breakdown, the formal notice and its proof of delivery, and a computation sheet showing principal, ECB-plus-ten penalties, the 40-euro fee and legal interest separately. The judge may grant the order in full, grant it partially, or reject it outright, and a rejection cannot be appealed, though the ordinary court route remains open.

This is where the 2026 reform changes everything you may have read in older guides. Under Decree No. 2026-96 of 16 February 2026, presented by the official entreprendre.service-public news page, three points are new for orders issued since 1 September 2026. First, speed of service: Article 1411 now states “L’ordonnance portant injonction de payer est non avenue si elle n’a pas été signifiée dans les trois mois de sa date.” (Article 1411, Code of Civil Procedure, Légifrance). You have three months, down from six, to have a commissaire de justice serve the order on each debtor, failing which the order lapses, so instruct the officer the day you receive it. Second, enforceability is now automatic: Article 1422 provides that “L’ordonnance ne constitue un titre exécutoire et ne produit les effets d’un tel titre ou d’une décision de justice qu’à l’expiration des causes suspensives d’exécution prévues au premier alinéa et à l’expiration d’un délai de deux mois suivant la signification de l’ordonnance d’injonction de payer.” (Article 1422, Code of Civil Procedure, Légifrance). The same article adds: “Elle produit alors tous les effets d’un jugement contradictoire.” The old routine of returning to the greffe to beg for a certificate of non-opposition is gone. Third, information flows through the registry: outside the commercial courts, “le greffe avise le créancier ou son mandataire, par tout moyen conférant date certaine, de l’opposition formée par le débiteur, dans un délai d’un mois à compter de sa réception” (Article 1415, Code of Civil Procedure, Légifrance), while before the commercial court the registry invites you to deposit the opposition costs. Private commentaries written before September 2026, including a widely read village-justice analysis that still describes the former six-month deadline and the certificate routine (a widely read private commentary on the efficacy and dangers of the injonction de payer (consulted 12 September 2026, still describing the former six-month deadline and certificate routine)), are now outdated on these three points, which is precisely why foreign creditors should rely on the reformed texts rather than second-hand guides.

The debtor, meanwhile, holds one powerful card: opposition within one month. Article 1416 states: “L’opposition est formée dans le mois qui suit la signification de l’ordonnance. Toutefois, si la signification n’a pas été faite à personne, l’opposition est recevable jusqu’à l’expiration du délai d’un mois suivant le premier acte signifié à personne ou, à défaut, suivant la première mesure d’exécution ayant pour effet de rendre indisponibles en tout ou partie les biens du débiteur.” (Article 1416, Code of Civil Procedure, Légifrance). Two recent Cour de cassation rulings, both dated 6 March 2025, show how seriously courts police this deadline. In one case, the debtor’s one-month period nominally expired on a Sunday, and the Court held the opposition filed on Monday timely, recalling that “Il résulte du second de ces textes que l’opposition à une ordonnance d’injonction de payer est recevable dans le mois qui suit la signification de l’ordonnance” combined with Article 642: “Le délai qui expirerait normalement un samedi, un dimanche ou un jour férié ou chômé est prorogé jusqu’au premier jour ouvrable suivant.” (Cass., 2nd Civil Chamber, 6 March 2025, No. 22-16.735; Article 642, Code of Civil Procedure, Légifrance). Never assume an opposition filed on day 31 or 32 is automatically late; count the days under Article 642 before celebrating. The lesson is symmetrical: as creditor, diary the two-month enforceability date and the one-month opposition window from the date of service stated in the commissaire’s report, and check whether service was personal, à personne, or not, because the starting point differs.

Where both parties sit in different EU countries, a parallel European track exists: the European order for payment under Regulation (EC) No. 1896/2006 creating a European order for payment procedure, which French courts apply regularly, as the two rulings discussed in this section show. The Cour de cassation confirmed on 27 June 2019 that challenges to the service of a European payment order, followed by French enforcement, belong before the French enforcement judge, rejecting the debtor’s attempt to have seizures lifted on that ground (Cass., 2nd Civil Chamber, 27 June 2019, No. 18-14.198, concerning a Dutch liquidator enforcing against a French company). And on 21 May 2026 the same chamber referred to the Court of Justice of the EU a dispute in which an Italian company had obtained a Milan European payment order against a French company and seized its French bank accounts (Cass., 2nd Civil Chamber, 21 May 2026, No. 22-19.530). For a non-EU creditor, the French domestic order remains the standard route; for an EU-based group with a French debtor, the European order can be the faster cross-border vehicle, and both end at the same place: seizure of French assets.

II. Turning the French Payment Order Into Cash: Seizure of Bank Accounts and Survival of Opposition

A. How Does a Foreign Creditor Enforce the Order Against French Bank Accounts?

Once the two-month period after service expires without opposition, your order is an enforcement title equivalent to a contested judgment, and you may seize. Article L. 211-1 of the Code of Civil Enforcement Procedures provides: “Tout créancier muni d’un titre exécutoire constatant une créance liquide et exigible peut, pour en obtenir le paiement, saisir entre les mains d’un tiers les créances de son débiteur portant sur une somme d’argent” (Article L. 211-1, Enforcement Code, Légifrance). The weapon of choice is the saisie-attribution, a third-party seizure served by a commissaire de justice directly on the debtor’s bank, which freezes the account balances up to the amount owed and attributes them to you if the debtor stays silent. For a foreign creditor this is the decisive equalizer: you do not need the debtor’s cooperation, you do not need to find movable property to auction, and you do not need to attend any hearing. You need three things: the enforceable order, the debtor’s bank details, usually visible on its own invoices, past transfers or its Kbis-linked banking footprint, and a commissaire de justice in the debtor’s area, whom your French counsel instructs with the title and a breakdown of principal, interest, penalties and costs.

Timing is everything, and a second 6 March 2025 ruling proves it from the debtor’s side, which teaches creditors exactly where the traps lie. A Swiss debt-recovery company holding an old payment order carried out a saisie-attribution against a French debtor’s bank account; the account held only 10.82 euros above the unseizable subsistence balance, and the debtor argued the seizure had frozen nothing and therefore could not start the opposition clock. The Cour de cassation disagreed: the seizure counts as the first enforcement measure making assets unavailable, even with a near-empty account, so the one-month opposition period had run from its notification (Cass., 2nd Civil Chamber, 6 March 2025, No. 22-18.166). The practical message for creditors is encouraging: even a thinly funded account triggers the deadline pressure on the debtor, and many debtors pay at the seizure stage rather than litigate. The same ruling also disciplined lower courts on a point creditors should know: where the opposition is declared inadmissible, the court may not go on to confirm the payment order on the merits, because “le jugement du tribunal se substitue à l’ordonnance portant injonction de payer” (Article 1420, quoted by the Court), and “En statuant ainsi, la cour d’appel, qui a consacré l’excès de pouvoir du premier juge, a violé les textes susvisés.” An inadmissible opposition ends the incident; it does not produce a second judgment for the creditor, nor does it need one, since the order stands.

Budget the enforcement realistically. The commissaire de justice charges regulated fees per enforcement act plus disbursements, and each seizure, notification and fund transfer generates a separate cost line that the debtor ultimately bears on top of the debt where the title covers costs, but which you advance. Ask your counsel for a written fee estimate covering service of the order, the saisie-attribution, its notification to the debtor, and the payment transfer, and confirm who holds the recovered funds and converts them: transfers to a non-French account are routine, but your counsel should confirm wire details and any bank compliance questions in advance. Where the debtor’s account is empty, the commissaire’s report still has value: it documents insolvency signals that feed the next decision, whether to attempt seizure of other receivables, register the title, or negotiate from a position where the debtor knows you hold an enforceable order rather than a mere invoice.

B. What Happens If the French Debtor Opposes, and How Do You Win From Abroad?

Opposition transforms the fast track into an ordinary lawsuit, but it does not erase your file; it moves it before a judge who now hears both sides. Article 1415 directs that “L’opposition est portée, selon le cas, devant la juridiction dont le juge ou le président a rendu l’ordonnance portant injonction de payer.” (Article 1415, Code of Civil Procedure, Légifrance) The court summons both parties to a full hearing where the order is re-examined adversarially, and the resulting judgment replaces the order entirely. Debtors typically raise four defences: payment already made, defective goods or incomplete service, set-off against a counterclaim, or excessive penalties. Your preparation should pre-empt each one: bank statements showing no matching credit, signed delivery slips and acceptance emails, correspondence proving the counterclaim was never raised before, and a penalty computation sheet tied line by line to Article L. 441-10.

On penalties, courts have shown little mercy to debtors who simply ignored proper invoices. In a dispute between two French construction-sector companies, the Toulouse court of appeal fixed the principal debt at 315,748.11 euros for unpaid invoices and added 39,021.32 euros in late penalties, reasoning that the invoices had been duly communicated and never protested while business relations continued; the Cour de cassation rejected the debtor’s appeal on 17 November 2021 (Cass., Commercial Chamber, 17 November 2021, No. 20-15.428). The pattern is directly useful to foreign suppliers: communicate every invoice provably, keep performing where commercially sensible, and an unprotested invoice becomes very hard to challenge later. Conversely, if your customer protested quality in writing at delivery, expect the judge to order expert evidence or steer the case to full proceedings, and weigh settlement.

Running this phase from abroad is entirely feasible if you organize representation early. Across the Channel, across the Atlantic or across the Alps, you act through a French avocat, and where a non-lawyer agent files for you, remember that “Le mandataire, s’il n’est avocat, doit justifier d’un pouvoir spécial.” (Article 1415, Code of Civil Procedure, Légifrance) Proceedings are in French, exhibits in foreign languages need certified translations, and witness evidence follows French rules, so brief your counsel with a complete chronological bundle in English plus source documents, and let the firm handle translation and formal presentation. Our guide on defending French proceedings from abroad, served with an assignation in France, details the same logistics from the debtor’s mirror perspective and shows how foreign parties navigate French courts without relocating. Most opposed payment orders settle at or just after the first hearing: the debtor has seen your complete file, faces ECB-plus-ten interest accruing daily plus the 40-euro fee and costs, and understands that losing means paying your enforcement costs too. A settlement protocol signed at that stage, ideally homologated by the judge, gives you an enforceable title on agreed terms without waiting for judgment. Where settlement fails, the judgment that follows is appealable and enforceable under ordinary rules, and your counsel converts it into seizure exactly as described above, closing the loop from silent invoice to recovered funds.

Conclusion

An unpaid French invoice is not a write-off; it is the starting point of a procedure French law designed for exactly your situation. Send the formal notice that starts legal interest, compute the ECB-plus-ten penalties and the 40-euro recovery fee your debtor owes by operation of law, and verify the invoice mentions before filing. File the payment-order application at the debtor’s court with a complete documentary bundle, serve the order within the new three-month deadline, and let the reformed two-month clock produce your enforcement title automatically. Enforce through a bank seizure that needs no further hearing, and treat any opposition as a second chance to win on a file you already built rather than a defeat. The March 2025 rulings of the Cour de cassation confirm that deadline computation, seizure effects and judicial powers in this procedure are applied strictly and even-handedly, to French and foreign creditors alike. With counsel coordinating the commissaire de justice and the diary of deadlines from Paris, a foreign company recovers French debts without opening a French office, without speaking French in court, and often without ever attending a hearing.

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Our firm advises foreign companies and overseas founders on recovering French unpaid invoices, payment-order proceedings and bank seizures every week. You receive a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm, with a clear answer on your invoice file, your penalty computation and your chances of enforcement. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22 or write through our contact page, and keep your contracts, invoices, delivery proofs and reminder letters at hand for the call.