You run your French company from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore. The service was delivered, the goods arrived, the invoice went out with a clear due date — and the French client simply does not pay. Emails go unanswered, the phone rings out, and your cash flow bleeds while you are thousands of kilometres from the debtor. French law was built for exactly this situation: a creditor with a written contract and a fixed sum does not have to fly to France and sue for a year before seeing money. A fast paper procedure called the injonction de payer (order to pay) lets a judge condemn the debtor without a hearing, often in under a week, and a court officer called the commissaire de justice (formerly the huissier de justice, the enforcement agent) then seizes the money from the debtor’s bank account. This article walks you through the whole chain as a foreign-based director: how French payment deadlines, automatic late penalties and the 40-euro recovery fee already work in your favour, how to draft the formal demand that starts the interest clock, how to file the payment order from abroad, what happens if the debtor objects, how the European payment order covers debtors in other EU countries, and how seizure turns the court paper into cash. Every French acronym is explained, every decisive rule is quoted from the statute or the Court of Cassation, and every step can be handled remotely through counsel and the online court portal.

I. Make your invoice legally bulletproof before you go to court: payment deadlines, automatic penalties and the formal demand

A. How French law punishes late payment between businesses, and how to calculate what your debtor really owes you

Start with the invoice itself, because French commercial law already loads it with weapons most foreign founders never use. Article L. 441-10 of the Commercial Code caps payment periods between professionals. Unless the sales terms say otherwise, money is due thirty days after delivery of the goods or performance of the service. The parties may agree a longer period, but the statute draws hard lines: “Le délai convenu entre les parties pour régler les sommes dues ne peut dépasser soixante jours après la date d’émission de la facture.” A 45-days-end-of-month term is possible only if it is expressly written into the contract and is not a manifest abuse toward the creditor, and periodic invoices under article 289 of the Tax Code are capped at 45 days from issue. Any clause granting your client 90 or 120 days is therefore not a commercial concession you must honour; it is an unlawful term you can disregard when you claim. Check your general terms of sale today: if they promise your client more than 60 days from the invoice date without the 45-days-end-of-month format, rewrite them before the next dispute, and keep the signed contract or accepted purchase order that proves the agreed term.

The second weapon is money itself. Late-payment penalties in France are automatic. Your sales terms must state the applicable rate, but even silence does not save the debtor, because the statute continues: “Les pénalités de retard sont exigibles sans qu’un rappel soit nécessaire.” No reminder letter is needed to trigger them; expiry of the due date on the invoice is enough. The default rate is severe by international standards: “Sauf disposition contraire qui ne peut toutefois fixer un taux inférieur à trois fois le taux d’intérêt légal, ce taux est 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.” In practice that means the European Central Bank refinancing rate plus ten percentage points, applied by half-year by reference to the rate in force on 1 January or 1 July. No contract may set a rate below three times the French legal interest rate. The commercial chamber of the Court of Cassation confirmed the full mechanics on 24 April 2024 (appeal no. 22-24.275), recalling that payment terms must state the penalty rate and the recovery fee, that penalties run without any reminder, and that the rule implements article 3 of EU Directive 2011/7 on late payment in commercial transactions, under which the creditor may claim interest for late payment as soon as he has performed and the sum is not paid at maturity. When you quantify your claim, compute these penalties day by day from the day after the invoice due date; on a 50,000-euro invoice one year late, ECB-plus-ten-points interest alone adds roughly five figures, and most debtors settle once a lawyer shows them the arithmetic.

The third weapon is the fixed recovery fee. Every professional who pays late owes the creditor, as of right, a flat indemnity for collection costs, whose amount is set by decree: “Le montant de l’indemnité forfaitaire pour frais de recouvrement prévue au II de l’article L. 441-10 est fixé à 40 euros.” Forty euros per unpaid invoice, due automatically on top of the penalties. And where your real collection costs exceed that flat sum — foreign counsel fees, translation, enforcement officer charges — the statute lets you claim the documented surplus on top. Add the fee to every formal demand as a separate line; debtors who ignore principal often react to a visibly growing meter of penalties plus fees.

Two cautions complete the picture. First, the general civil law of interest backs up the commercial penalties: damages for late payment of a sum of money consist of interest at the legal rate running from the formal demand, “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,” and a debtor whose bad faith caused loss beyond the delay can be ordered to pay distinct damages on top of that moratory interest. Where a court awards you compensation, interest at the legal rate attaches even if you forgot to ask: “En toute matière, la condamnation à une indemnité emporte intérêts au taux légal même en l’absence de demande ou de disposition spéciale du jugement.” Second, watch the clock. Business claims between traders prescribe in five years: “Les obligations nées à l’occasion de leur commerce entre commerçants ou entre commerçants et non-commerçants se prescrivent par cinq ans si elles ne sont pas soumises à des prescriptions spéciales plus courtes.” Five years feels long, but evidence goes stale and debtors go insolvent; a claim filed in month three recovers, a claim filed in year four negotiates at a discount. One honest status note: article L. 441-10 as quoted here was verified in force on 24 September 2026, with a deferred repeal taking effect on 1 January 2027 under the reform of Title IV of Book IV; the caps, the ECB-plus-ten rate and the 40-euro fee described above are the law applicable to your invoice today.

B. How to send the formal demand that starts the interest clock and unlocks the fast court procedure

Before any judge, French practice expects a mise en demeure, the formal demand for payment. Legally it is the act that puts the debtor officially on notice, and as shown above, legal-rate interest runs from that date. The Civil Code defines it in one sentence: “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.” In plain terms: a bailiff-style summons, or any document that clearly demands payment, or even the mere arrival of the due date if your contract says so. From abroad, the practical form is a demand letter sent by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt, or served by a commissaire de justice, giving the debtor a short final deadline — eight to fifteen days is customary — and stating the exact sums: principal per invoice, ECB-plus-ten penalties accrued to date, the 40-euro fee per invoice, and warning of court action. Have counsel send it on French letterhead: files show that a lawyer-signed demand citing the penalty rate produces payment within the deadline in a large share of first-time disputes, because the debtor’s own accountant can verify the meter is running.

Draft the demand as if the judge will read it, because he will: it becomes exhibit one in the court file. Identify each invoice by number, date, due date and amount; attach the contract or accepted order, the delivery slips or acceptance reports, and a statement of account. State the penalty rate and the period applied, cite the 40-euro indemnity, and demand payment to your French company bank account with IBAN. Keep proof of sending and of receipt — the acknowledgment slip or the officer’s report of service. If the debtor replies contesting quality, delivery or price, do not ignore the reply: a genuinely disputed claim cannot use the fastest procedure, and you need to know that before filing. A vague “we will pay soon” without any substantive dispute, by contrast, changes nothing; silence and stalling are not contestation. File away every exchange. When the deadline expires unpaid, you move to the judge with a file that already proves the contract, the amount, the due date and the demand — which is exactly what the payment-order procedure requires.

II. Force payment from abroad: the payment order, the European order and the seizure that turns paper into cash

A. How the French payment order gets you an enforceable title in days, and what happens if the debtor objects

The injonction de payer is France’s workhorse for undisputed money claims, and it is tailor-made for a creditor who lives abroad. There is no hearing and no need to travel: your lawyer files a requête (written petition) with the court of the debtor’s place — the commercial court, now called the tribunal des activités économiques (the business court, TAE) in most registries, for business-to-business invoices — attaching the documents that prove the claim. The remedy is available where “La créance a une cause contractuelle ou résulte d’une obligation de caractère statutaire et s’élève à un montant déterminé.” A contract plus invoices plus delivery proof plus the unpaid balance is the textbook file. Filing runs through the Tribunal digital online portal, so your counsel in France can lodge it while you sign the authority by email from abroad. If the file is complete, the court’s president issues the payment order routinely in a matter of days — the Paris business-court registry describes an order “most often in less than a week” — without summoning either party. The registry then hands your side a certified copy bearing the enforcement formula, to be served with the supporting documents.

Service must be handled by a commissaire de justice, the sworn officer who serves court papers and enforces judgments. Since 1 September 2026, the creditor must have the order served within three months of its date, down from six previously; miss that window and the order lapses, so diary it the day the order arrives. The debtor then has one month from service to file opposition: “L’opposition est formée dans le mois qui suit la signification de l’ordonnance.” During that month the order cannot be enforced; the deadline suspends execution. If no opposition arrives, your lawyer asks the registry for the enforceable title and moves straight to seizure — section B below. If the debtor does object, there is no need to panic: the Paris registry notes that fewer than one in ten payment orders draw opposition, and an opposition simply converts the case into an ordinary hearing where your already-assembled file is a head start. One practical sting to budget: after an opposition before the commercial court, the registry asks the creditor for a 105-euro advance on court costs, payable within 15 days if you want the case to proceed. Compared with the claim, it is negligible, but a foreign director should leave a small provision with counsel so the deadline is never missed.

Three recent Court of Cassation rulings fix the legal frame you rely on. First, opposition always sends the whole dispute to the court: the second civil chamber held on 18 January 2024 (appeal no. 21-23.033) that opposition seizes the court of the creditor’s initial claim and the entire dispute — celle-ci ayant pour effet de saisir le tribunal de la demande initiale du créancier et de l’ensemble du litige — and even an irregular opposition interrupts the opposition deadline: l’opposition à une injonction de payer, même irrégulière, qui saisit le tribunal de la demande initiale du créancier et de l’ensemble du litige, interrompt le délai d’opposition. Second, once the court hears the opposition, its judgment replaces the order entirely. On 11 September 2025 (appeal no. 24-14.766), the Court applied article 1420 of the Code of Civil Procedure — “Le jugement du tribunal se substitue à l’ordonnance portant injonction de payer” — and quashed a judgment that had declared the opposition admissible yet let the order’s provisions survive, ruling that l’ordonnance portant injonction de payer, qui n’est une décision qu’en l’absence d’opposition, ne pouvait reprendre ses effets. In practice this protects you both ways: a debtor cannot keep an old order alive after losing the argument, and your victory at the hearing becomes a full judgment, immediately useful for enforcement. Third, the penalty architecture quoted in section I is not academic decoration: the commercial chamber’s 24 April 2024 ruling (no. 22-24.275) walks through the ECB-plus-ten-points rate and the no-reminder rule in a dispute over unpaid training invoices, so claim the penalties inside the payment-order petition itself rather than treating them as an afterthought.

Two variations deserve a paragraph each. Where the debtor sits in another EU Member State — a German customer of your French company, for instance — the European order for payment under Regulation (EC) No. 1896/2006 offers a parallel paper procedure that circulates between Member States except Denmark; your French counsel files in the competent French court and the order is recognised abroad without exequatur. Where the claim is small or the debtor is an individual rather than a trader, France provides lighter tracks: the simplified small-claims recovery for debts under 5,000 euros handled through a commissaire de justice, and since 25 April 2026 a new simplified procedure for uncontested commercial claims between traders with no amount cap, announced by service-public.fr and becoming operational upon publication of its implementing decree — ask counsel whether that decree has been published before choosing your track, since the payment order remains the battle-tested route until then. If the petition is rejected, the setback is minor: the creditor has no appeal against the refusal but may sue through the ordinary procedure, and the assembled file transfers directly.

B. How seizure actually recovers the money, and how to run the whole case from outside France

A payment order nobody enforces is decoration. Enforcement in France runs through the commissaire de justice holding your enforceable title — the unopposed payment order made enforceable, or the judgment after opposition. The officer’s first and most effective tool against a business debtor is the saisie-attribution, the garnishment of money claims in a third party’s hands, typically the debtor’s bank. The statute opens it to “Tout créancier muni d’un titre exécutoire constatant une créance liquide et exigible” — any creditor with an enforceable title showing a liquidated, due claim — who may saisir entre les mains d’un tiers les créances de son débiteur portant sur une somme d’argent. Served on the bank, it locks the debtor’s credit balance up to your claim and, absent challenge within one month, the bank pays you directly. You do not need to know the debtor’s account number in advance: the officer can locate accounts through the national bank-account file procedure. Against a debtor with visible equipment, stock or vehicles, the second tool is seizure and sale of tangible movables: “Tout créancier muni d’un titre exécutoire constatant une créance liquide et exigible peut, après signification d’un commandement, faire procéder à la saisie et à la vente des biens meubles corporels appartenant à son débiteur.” A formal command to pay first, then seizure, then auction if the debtor still does not pay. Interest continues to accrue through enforcement, and enforcement costs advanced by you are added to the debtor’s bill on recovery.

Running all of this from abroad is routine, provided you organise three things. First, representation: a French lawyer files, receives the registry’s letters — including any 105-euro advance request after opposition — and instructs the commissaire de justice; give a written authority and keep a small costs provision on the lawyer’s account so no 15-day deadline fails for want of a transfer. Second, information: send counsel the full paper trail in one bundle — contract or order, general terms of sale, invoices, delivery or acceptance proofs, the statement of account, the formal demand and its receipt, and any debtor replies. Debtors often allege defects only after the order arrives; contemporaneous delivery slips signed without reservation defeat most such defences, and the penalty computation should be tabulated invoice by invoice. Third, payment logistics: state in every demand and every enforcement instruction the IBAN of your French company account to which the debtor or the bank must pay, so recovered funds land where your accountant expects them; if your invoices fall under the new electronic-invoicing obligations, keep them compliant, since a formally defective invoice invites the one defence that can derail a payment order — genuine contestation. Our firm’s guide to electronic invoicing from abroad covers that compliance layer. And if during the case you discover the debtor cannot pay anyone — frozen accounts, insolvency rumours — switch tracks promptly toward filing your claim in its collective proceedings rather than spending on seizure against an empty shell; our insolvency guide for directors abroad explains the 45-day logic that then applies.

A final word on timing and cost, because foreign directors always ask. From demand letter to served payment order, count roughly six to ten weeks if the debtor stays silent: two weeks of final demand, days for the order, up to three months available for service but used in days in practice, one month of opposition waiting. With opposition and a hearing, add several months, comparable to any defended claim. Costs stay proportionate: court fees are modest, the 105-euro advance applies only if the debtor objects, and the officer’s service and seizure fees join the recoverable bill. Set against an invoice inflated by ECB-plus-ten penalties, the 40-euro fee per invoice and running legal interest, the economics of acting early are overwhelming — and the five-year prescription means delay never improves your position. The file you build this week, while delivery staff remember the job and the paper trail is warm, is the file that gets paid.

Conclusion

An unpaid French invoice is not a cultural fatality to be written off from abroad; it is a documented claim inside a system designed to convert documents into money without dragging the creditor across borders. The sequence that wins is disciplined and short: verify your payment terms against the 60-day cap, total the principal with ECB-plus-ten penalties and the 40-euro fee per invoice, send a lawyer-signed formal demand that starts the interest clock, file the payment order with the complete file through the online portal, serve within three months, and enforce by bank garnishment if silence continues. Opposition is statistically rare and legally manageable — the case law sends the whole dispute to the judge, replaces the order with a real judgment, and preserves your penalty arithmetic. Cross-border debtors meet the European order; small claims meet the simplified tracks; insolvent debtors meet the collective-proceedings filing. For each fork, the decisive factor is the same file you can assemble this week: contract, delivery proof, invoice, demand, computation. Put it together now, instruct counsel before the trail cools, and let the French enforcement machinery do the travelling you cannot.

Need a quick opinion on your case

If a French client has left your invoice unpaid and you run the company from abroad, our firm can assess your file under French commercial and enforcement law: payment terms, penalties and 40-euro fee computation, formal demand, payment order or European order, opposition strategy and seizure. Initial phone consultation: 80 EUR incl. VAT, with a personal reply within 24 hours. Call Maître Reda Kohen, attorney at the Paris Bar, at +33 6 46 60 58 22, or write via our contact page. Strictly confidential, protected by professional secrecy, with no obligation.