You delivered the goods or performed the service, you sent the invoice to your French customer, and nothing came back. Emails go unanswered, the phone number rings into the void, and you are sitting in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore wondering whether a trip to France is needed to recover the money. It is not, at least not at first. French law gives the unpaid creditor a chain of tools that work from a distance: penalties and a flat recovery fee that the statute adds to the bill automatically, a formal demand letter that starts interest running, a paper-only court procedure that produces an enforceable order without a hearing, a fast-track claim for a provisional payment where the debt is clear, and a European procedure when the debtor sits in another EU country. Enforcement itself is then handled in France by a sworn officer, the commissaire de justice, formerly called huissier de justice. This article explains the full sequence in the order a foreign creditor should use it: first, what the law lets you add to the invoice and how to calculate it; second, how to put the debtor on formal notice from abroad; third, which fast procedure turns the paperwork into a court order; and fourth, how that order is enforced against a French debtor while you stay where you are. Every step is anchored in the statutory text and in recent decisions of the Cour de cassation, the French supreme court for civil and commercial matters.

I. How Much Can You Add to an Unpaid French Invoice? Late Penalties, Legal Interest and the 40-Euro Fee

Before going to court, count what is owed. French commercial law does not leave the creditor with the bare principal: it adds late penalties computed at a statutory rate, a flat 40-euro recovery fee, and in some configurations legal interest running from the formal demand. These additions are not a negotiating posture; they are rights written into the Commercial Code, and they apply whether or not the debtor answers the phone. The trap for foreign companies is that the penalty rate and the flat fee must appear on the invoice or in the payment terms to be claimed smoothly, and that penalties and legal interest cannot simply be stacked on top of each other. The calculation below follows the order a French judge would follow: check the payment deadline, check the invoice mentions, apply the rate, add the flat fee, and choose between penalties and legal interest where only one can run.

A. How Do You Calculate French Late-Payment Penalties and the 40-Euro Recovery Fee?

Start with the deadline, because penalties run only after it. Article L. 441-10, I, of the Commercial Code sets the default rule: “le délai de règlement des sommes dues ne peut dépasser trente jours après la date de réception des marchandises ou d’exécution de la prestation demandée.” The parties may agree a longer period, but “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 where it is expressly stipulated in the contract and is not a manifest abuse against the creditor. In practice, most foreign suppliers work with the 30-day default or a negotiated 60-day term stated in their general terms of sale, the conditions générales de vente universally shortened to CGV. Whatever the term, it must be written on the invoice, because the penalty clock starts the day after the payment date shown on the invoice, the payment date shown on the invoice.

The invoice itself must carry the penalty machinery. Article L. 441-9 of the Commercial Code requires every business invoice to state “le taux des pénalités exigibles le jour suivant la date de règlement inscrite sur la facture ainsi que le montant de l’indemnité forfaitaire pour frais de recouvrement due au créancier en cas de retard de paiement.” A foreign company invoicing French customers should therefore print three things on every invoice: the payment date, the penalty rate, and the 40-euro recovery fee. Omitting them is not neutral: the same article exposes the supplier to an administrative fine of up to 75,000 euros for a natural person and 375,000 euros for a legal entity, doubled on repeat offending. The French fraud-control authority, the DGCCRF (Direction générale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des fraudes), actively fines payment-term violations, so invoicing discipline protects the claim twice: it founds the penalties and it avoids a fine against the creditor itself.

The rate is statutory and generous to the creditor. Article L. 441-10, II provides: “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.” The European Central Bank refinancing rate plus ten percentage points is therefore the default; a contract may set a different rate but never below three times the legal interest rate. The applicable rate is frozen per half-year: the rate in force on 1 January governs the first semester, the rate in force on 1 July the second. And the decisive sentence for a creditor tired of sending reminders: “Les pénalités de retard sont exigibles sans qu’un rappel soit nécessaire.” Penalties are due without any reminder being necessary. No formal notice is required to trigger them; the day after the invoice deadline, they start running by operation of law.

On top of the penalties comes the flat recovery fee. The same paragraph, Article L. 441-10, II, states: “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.” The debtor owes it automatically, de plein droit, the moment payment is late. Article D. 441-5 of the Commercial Code fixes the figure in one sentence: “Le montant de l’indemnité forfaitaire pour frais de recouvrement prévue au II de l’article L. 441-10 est fixé à 40 euros.” Every late business invoice therefore carries an automatic 40 euros. Where the actual recovery costs exceed that sum, the same statutory paragraph adds: “Lorsque les frais de recouvrement exposés sont supérieurs au montant de cette indemnité forfaitaire, le créancier peut demander une indemnisation complémentaire, sur justification.” Lawyer fees, officer fees and translation costs can thus be claimed on top, with receipts. One boundary only, set by the same text: “Toutefois, le créancier ne peut invoquer le bénéfice de ces indemnités lorsque l’ouverture d’une procédure de sauvegarde, de redressement ou de liquidation judiciaire interdit le paiement à son échéance de la créance qui lui est due.” If the debtor has entered French insolvency proceedings, safeguard, reorganisation or liquidation, the penalties and the fee cannot be invoked for the frozen claim; the creditor must declare the principal in the proceedings instead of inflating it.

A worked illustration shows the mechanics. Take a 20,000-euro invoice for consulting services, payable at 30 days, unpaid for 120 days past the deadline, with the ECB refinancing rate at 2 percent on the relevant 1 January, giving a penalty rate of 12 percent. Penalties equal 20,000 × 12% × 120/365, roughly 789 euros, plus the automatic 40 euros, plus documented recovery costs on justification. The exact ECB rate must be checked for the right half-year on the Banque de France or ECB publications; the formula itself never changes. Two warnings complete the picture. First, penalties and legal interest do not cumulate. The Commercial Chamber of the Cour de cassation held on 24 April 2024 (appeal no. 22-24.275, published in the Bulletin): “Il en résulte que la pénalité de retard prévue à l’article L. 441-6, I, alinéa 8, du code de commerce, devenu L. 441-10, II, du même code, constitue un intérêt moratoire et que, ayant la même nature, elle ne se cumule pas avec les intérêts légaux de retard au sens de l’article 1153, alinéas 1 et 2, et de l’article 1231-6 du code civil.” The full reasoning is published at Cour de cassation, Commercial Chamber, 24 April 2024, no. 22-24.275. Claim the penalties or the legal interest, never both on the same period. Second, the penalty clause should live in the CGV and on the invoice before the dispute, because a judge asked to grant a fast provisional payment will look at exactly what the contract says.

B. How Do You Send a Formal Demand From Abroad That Starts Interest Running?

Penalties run without a reminder, but legal interest does not, and no judge grants anything without proof that the debtor was warned. French practice distinguishes the relance, the commercial reminder, from the mise en demeure, the formal demand to pay. Only the second produces legal effects. It should identify the creditor and debtor with their registration numbers, list each unpaid invoice with its date, amount and contractual deadline, add the computed penalties and the 40-euro fee per invoice, set a final payment deadline of eight to fifteen days, and warn that court proceedings will follow. It must be sent by lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception, universally shortened to LRAR, the registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt, or served by a commissaire de justice, because only a documented sending proves the date. From abroad, the reliable setup is to have French counsel send it: the letter goes out on law-firm letterhead, in French, to the debtor’s registered office as shown in the company register, with a copy by email for speed. Keep the postal receipt and the acknowledgment; they become exhibit number one in the court file.

The legal interest triggered by that letter is defined by the Civil Code. 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.” And it adds: “Ces dommages et intérêts sont dus sans que le créancier soit tenu de justifier d’aucune perte.” No loss needs to be proved; the rate applies from the demand. The rate itself, the taux de l’intérêt légal, is set by ministerial order every half-year: Article L. 313-2 of the Monetary and Financial Code provides that “Le taux de l’intérêt légal est, en toute matière, fixé par arrêté du ministre chargé de l’économie”, adding that “Il comprend un taux applicable lorsque le créancier est une personne physique n’agissant pas pour des besoins professionnels et un taux applicable dans tous les autres cas.” A company always falls under the second, professional rate. In a business-to-business claim the creditor therefore chooses its weapon: the Commercial Code penalties at ECB plus ten points, which usually pay far better, or the Civil Code legal interest from the mise en demeure. Since the Cour de cassation forbids cumulating both, the standard choice is the penalties, with the mise en demeure kept as the procedural anchor that proves the debtor was warned and fixes the starting point of any alternative interest claim.

Time is the other reason to send the demand early. Article L. 110-4 of the Commercial Code sets the limitation period: “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 from the due date is longer than many foreign founders expect, but it is not a reason to wait: memories fade, the debtor may move assets or enter insolvency, and a claim pursued within weeks of default settles far more often than one revived after two silent years. The demand letter also serves a diagnostic function. A debtor who replies disputing the quality of the goods, the scope of the services or the authority of the person who ordered them is signalling that fast paper procedures may fail and that a full trial could be needed. A debtor who stays silent, asks for time, or promises payment in writing is confirming exactly the kind of undisputed claim that the payment-order procedure is built for. Read the answer, or the silence, before choosing the court track.

II. How Do You Turn the Invoice Into a Court Order and Enforce It While Living Abroad?

Once the demand deadline has expired without payment, the claim must become a titre exécutoire, an enforceable title, meaning a document that authorises seizure of the debtor’s assets with the help of public force. Three tracks lead there, and the foreign creditor should pick according to one question: can the debtor seriously dispute the debt? If the answer is no, because a signed contract, a purchase order, delivery notes and unanswered invoices tell a consistent story, the injonction de payer, the payment-order procedure, is the cheapest and fastest route, entirely on paper. If the debt is clear but speed matters and a hearing is acceptable, the référé-provision, the fast-track provisional payment before the president of the court, produces an enforceable order in weeks. If the debtor sits in another European Union country, the European payment order takes over. The administration’s own guidance summarises the starting point: After amicable recovery has failed, through reminders and a formal demand, the creditor may file a payment-order petition with the commercial or judicial court (Entreprendre Service Public, Recouvrement judiciaire: injonction de payer en France et en Europe, page verified 1 September 2026). None of these tracks requires the creditor to live in France or to appear in person; a French lawyer files as mandataire, agent, and the file travels by post and by court registry.

A. Should You File an Injonction de Payer or a Référé-Provision for Your Unpaid Invoice?

The injonction de payer is available whatever the amount of the claim, and it covers precisely the foreign supplier’s situation: a contractual claim for a determined sum. Article 1405 of the Code of Civil Procedure opens the procedure: “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 ; en matière contractuelle, la détermination est faite en vertu des stipulations du contrat y compris, le cas échéant, la clause pénale”. An unpaid invoice backed by a contract, CGV, purchase order or even established commercial practice fits; a vague claim for unquantified damages does not. The Cour de cassation polices this boundary strictly. On 27 March 2025 the Third Civil Chamber quashed a judgment that had granted a payment order for rental-damage compensation fixed only in later letters, holding: “Il résulte de ce texte que le recouvrement d’une créance contractuelle ne peut être demandé suivant la procédure d’injonction de payer que si son montant est déterminé en vertu des stipulations du contrat” (Cass., 3rd Civil Chamber, 27 March 2025, no. 23-21.501, published in the Bulletin). The lesson for a foreign creditor is concrete: attach the contract and the order documents that price the deal, not only the invoice, because the amount must flow from the parties’ agreement. Where the file contains a signed contract, delivery proofs and the unpaid invoices, the condition is met; where the price was never agreed in writing, fix that gap before filing or choose the référé instead.

Filing is a paper petition, a requête, lodged with the court registry. Article 1407 of the Code of Civil Procedure states: “La demande est formée par requête remise ou adressée, selon le cas, au greffe par le créancier ou par tout mandataire.” Any agent may file, which is the provision that lets a French avocat act for a client who never sets foot in France. The petition must contain “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.” Precision matters: principal per invoice, penalties computed day by day, the 40-euro fee per late invoice, and any contractual interest, each shown separately, with the supporting bundle listed and attached. The competent court is the commercial court (tribunal de commerce) where both parties are traders, otherwise the judicial court (tribunal judiciaire) of the debtor’s domicile. Court fees are modest, representation by counsel is not mandatory but is the only realistic option from abroad, and the judge rules without a hearing. If the file convinces, the court issues the ordonnance portant injonction de payer, the payment order.

The order must then be served, and served fast. Article 1411 of the Code of Civil Procedure warns: “L’ordonnance portant injonction de payer est non avenue si elle n’a pas été signifiée dans les trois mois de sa date.” If it is not served within three months of its date, the order is void, and the creditor starts again. Service is performed by a commissaire de justice, who also makes the supporting documents available electronically. Then the debtor has its say: Article 1416 provides that “L’opposition est formée dans le mois qui suit la signification de l’ordonnance.” One month from service to file opposition, with an extended window where service was not made personally. Opposition sends the case to a full adversarial hearing, where the creditor’s lawyer pleads the file already built; silence or expiry without opposition lets the creditor ask the registry to stamp the order with the formule exécutoire, the enforcement formula, which converts it into a titre exécutoire. In the standard scenario, a silent debtor, the creditor goes from petition to enforceable title in roughly two to four months without any hearing and without travelling.

The alternative, the référé-provision, trades a hearing for speed and flexibility. Article 835 of the Code of Civil Procedure allows the president of the judicial court to act even where a serious dispute exists for protective measures, and adds: “Dans les cas où l’existence de l’obligation n’est pas sérieusement contestable, ils peuvent accorder une provision au créancier, ou ordonner l’exécution de l’obligation même s’il s’agit d’une obligation de faire.” Where the existence of the obligation is not seriously disputable, the judge may grant the creditor a provision, an advance on the final judgment. Unpaid invoices acknowledged by the debtor, part-paid, or matched by delivery acceptances are textbook cases. The 24 April 2024 decision quoted above is itself a référé case and carries a practical warning from the bench (Cass., Commercial Chamber, 24 April 2024, no. 22-24.275): “la cour d’appel en a exactement déduit que la demande en paiement des pénalités prévues par le premier de ces textes en sus des intérêts moratoires prévus par le second se heurtait à une contestation sérieuse qui ne relevait pas des pouvoirs de la juridiction du référé.” Asking for penalties on top of legal interest created the very serious dispute that took the claim outside the fast-track judge’s powers. In référé, claim the principal plus the Commercial Code penalties, not penalties plus legal interest, and keep the file clear of debatable extras. A defendant abroad changes nothing to the analysis; the writ is served internationally under the EU Service Regulation or the Hague Convention depending on the country, with extra weeks of procedural time that counsel should build into the plan.

B. How Does the European Payment Order Work and How Is the French Order Enforced?

Where the debtor is established in another EU Member State, the European payment order, the injonction de payer européenne, governed by Regulation (EC) No. 1896/2006 creating a European order for payment procedure, described in detail on the official Entreprendre Service Public page, offers a single cross-border track. The official guidance describes it as follows: it may be used where the dispute is cross-border, meaning the parties’ registered offices or professional domiciles sit in different EU States, Denmark excepted, and the claim must be for a sum of money arising from a contract, in a civil or commercial matter, that is certain, liquid and due, meaning it must be a claim the debtor cannot reasonably dispute, and it must have fallen due with a determined amount and not be time-barred. Like its French cousin it works whatever the amount claimed. The creditor files standard Form A, stating the principal, any interest, costs and contractual penalties, with the supporting documents attached, before the court of the debtor’s domicile in principle; the European judicial atlas tells counsel exactly which court and in which language to file. The procedure runs entirely in writing, no hearing, no mandatory lawyer. Within about 30 days the court issues Form E, served or notified on the debtor under national rules, and the debtor may either pay or oppose within 30 days using Form F. Without opposition the order becomes enforceable and circulates across Member States without any intermediate exequatur validation. For a German, Spanish, Italian or Dutch customer of a French operation, this is usually the cleanest route, and it can be run by French counsel coordinating with the creditor by email.

Creditors outside the European Union, in the United Kingdom since Brexit, in the United States, Switzerland, the Gulf or Asia, use the French domestic tracks instead, with service abroad adding time but no conceptual difficulty. Once any order carries the formule exécutoire, it belongs to the closed list of enforceable titles: Article L. 111-3 of the Code of Civil Enforcement Procedures begins “Seuls constituent des titres exécutoires : 1° Les décisions des juridictions de l’ordre judiciaire ou de l’ordre administratif lorsqu’elles ont force exécutoire, ainsi que les accords auxquels ces juridictions ont conféré force exécutoire”. Enforcement is then the business of the commissaire de justice instructed by the creditor’s counsel. The standard measures against a French company are the saisie-attribution, the attachment of bank balances, which freezes the debtor’s accounts up to the amount owed, and the saisie-vente, the seizure of tangible business assets for auction, alongside attachment of receivables owed to the debtor by its own customers. Counsel will ask the creditor for any intelligence on the debtor’s bank, premises and clients; where that information is missing, the officer can search within statutory limits once the title exists. Enforcement costs are advanced by the creditor and largely recoverable from the debtor on top of the debt, which is why the 40-euro fee and the documented-costs rule of Article L. 441-10, II matter beyond the courtroom: they fund the recovery chain.

Three failure modes deserve an honest paragraph, because a foreign creditor should recognise them before spending money. First, the genuinely disputing debtor: defective goods alleged, services said never to have been ordered, set-off claimed for a counter-debt. Opposition to the payment order or a serious defence in référé moves the case to ordinary proceedings on the merits, slower and more expensive, where witness evidence and possibly expert inspection decide. The mise en demeure phase should already have revealed this; if the debtor’s complaints look substantive, budget for a full trial or negotiate a settlement secured by a payment schedule with a penalty clause. Second, the empty shell: a debtor with no assets, no bank balance and no income stream cannot be forced to pay what it does not have, and enforcement fees spent chasing it are lost. A quick solvency check, recent accounts, payment history, rumours of layoffs, before filing saves more than it costs. Third, the insolvent debtor: once safeguard, reorganisation or judicial liquidation is opened, individual enforcement stops, penalties and the flat fee cannot be added, and the creditor must declare its claim with the insolvency representative within the statutory deadline. Monitor the BODACC, the official bulletin of civil and commercial announcements where French insolvencies are published, as soon as a significant customer stops paying.

A compact operating sequence for the director abroad closes this part. First, on the day after the contractual deadline, compute penalties at the ECB-plus-ten rate and add 40 euros per late invoice, checking that the invoice states the rate and the fee. Second, within days, have French counsel send the mise en demeure by LRAR to the registered office, with email copy, listing every invoice, the breakdown of principal, penalties and fee, and a final deadline. Third, diary the answer: silence or a written promise points to the injonction de payer; a reasoned dispute points to negotiation or the merits track; a debtor in another EU State points to the European order. Fourth, file the requête with the full bundle, contract, orders, delivery proofs, invoices, reminders, demand letter, through counsel as mandataire. Fifth, have the order served within three months, calendar the one-month opposition window, and apply for the formule exécutoire the day it expires unused. Sixth, instruct the commissaire de justice with banking and asset intelligence and recover principal, penalties, fee, costs and enforcement expenses in one movement.

Conclusion

An unpaid French invoice is not a write-off waiting to happen; it is a documented claim travelling through a procedure designed for exactly this situation. The statute pays the patient creditor: penalties at the ECB rate plus ten points running without any reminder, an automatic 40-euro fee per late invoice, documented costs on top, all founded on invoice mentions that cost nothing to print. The formal demand converts commercial pressure into legal interest and builds the first exhibit of the court file. The payment-order petition converts the file into an enforceable title without a hearing wherever the amount is fixed by the contract, and the 2025 ruling of the Cour de cassation tells counsel precisely where that track stops. The fast-track provision covers the clear debt in weeks where a hearing is acceptable, provided penalties and legal interest are not cumulated, as the 2024 ruling requires. The European order extends the same logic across borders except Denmark, and the commissaire de justice turns the title into money against bank accounts, receivables and assets. None of this requires residence in France; it requires a complete file, a French counsel filing as agent, and speed. The five-year limitation period is no excuse for delay, because debtors restructure, assets move and insolvency freezes everything. Send the demand this week, file next month, serve within three months, and enforce the moment the order becomes final. That is how a foreign company collects a French debt from abroad.

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