You run a French company from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore. The French subsidiary or SAS (société par actions simplifiée, the flexible French corporation most foreign founders choose) invoices a French client. The Kbis (the official company identity extract issued by the greffe, the registry office of the commercial court) is clean, the VAT number is active, the work is delivered. Then nothing. The client goes silent, pays half, or disputes the invoice three months later. From abroad, this feels distant and hard to chase. French law is actually on your side here, provided your paperwork is in order. Payment deadlines between professionals are capped by statute, late penalties run automatically without a reminder, a fixed 40 euro recovery fee applies to every late invoice, and a fast paper procedure called the injonction de payer (order to pay) lets you obtain a court order without an initial hearing. This guide explains, entirely from the position of a foreign director or shareholder, what your French company can claim when a French client does not pay, and how you force payment from abroad without flying to France. It covers the invoice rules that make or break a claim, the penalties and the 40 euro fee, the injonction de payer before the tribunal judiciaire (the ordinary civil court) or the tribunal de commerce (the commercial court), what happens when the debtor objects, and how forced enforcement works through a commissaire de justice (the enforcement officer, formerly called huissier de justice). Where Paris and Île-de-France practice differs, it is flagged. The general starting point for running the company, bank account, Kbis, VAT and first hire, is our setting-up guide for foreign founders in France, which this article completes on the collection side.
I. What can your French company claim when a French client does not pay in France?
A. How do French payment deadlines, late penalties and the 40 euro fee work for your invoices?
French business-to-business payment deadlines are strictly capped by statute. Unless otherwise agreed, the deadline cannot exceed thirty days after receipt of the goods or performance of the service. Where the parties agree a deadline, Article L441-10 of the Commercial Code states that “Le délai convenu entre les parties pour régler les sommes dues ne peut dépasser soixante jours après la date d’émission de la facture”, with a possible forty-five days end of month if expressly agreed and not manifestly abusive toward the creditor. For periodic invoices within the meaning of Article 289 of the Tax Code, the agreed deadline cannot exceed forty-five days after issue. An acceptance or verification procedure, where one is provided for, is itself capped in principle at thirty days and cannot be used to push back the payment deadline, unless expressly agreed and not abusive. In practice, foreign directors should therefore read every French customer contract the other way round from common-law reflexes: a 90-day or 120-day clause imposed by a large client is not automatically valid, and the DGCCRF (Direction générale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des fraudes, the French competition and consumer enforcement authority) can fine companies that exceed the caps.
Once the deadline on the invoice passes, penalties accrue by operation of law. Your general terms, the CGV (conditions générales de vente), must state the penalty rate and the recovery fee. Article L441-10 of the Commercial Code provides that “Les pénalités de retard sont exigibles sans qu’un rappel soit nécessaire”, meaning no formal demand letter is needed to trigger them. The rate defaults to the European Central Bank refinancing rate plus ten points, unless otherwise agreed but never below three times the French legal interest rate. The Cour de cassation confirmed the mechanism in a commercial ruling of 24 April 2024, No. 22-24.275, recalling that “les conditions de règlement doivent obligatoirement préciser les conditions d’application et le taux d’intérêt des pénalités de retard exigibles le jour suivant la date de règlement figurant sur la facture ainsi que le montant de l’indemnité forfaitaire pour frais de recouvrement due au créancier dans le cas où les sommes dues sont réglées après cette date” and that “Les pénalités de retard sont exigibles sans qu’un rappel soit nécessaire.” The full decision is published at Cour de cassation, commercial chamber, 24 April 2024, No. 22-24.275. That same ruling holds that this penalty is default interest of the same nature as statutory interest, so it does not cumulate with legal moratory interest: claim one basis, not both. For a foreign finance team, the practical point is simple. Interest runs from the day after the invoice deadline, automatically, and your ledger should compute it with the half-yearly ECB rate rather than waiting for a lawyer letter.
On top of interest, every late B2B payment triggers a fixed recovery fee. Article D441-5 of the Commercial Code provides that “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 late invoice, automatically, without proof of loss. Where your actual collection costs exceed 40 euros, Article L441-10 of the Commercial Code allows additional documented compensation. The fee must appear on the invoice and in the payment terms. The DGCCRF fact sheet on payment deadlines, published on economie.gouv.fr, confirms the caps and the automatic nature of the penalties, and service-public.fr reminds businesses that the fee and the rate must be stated in advance. Do not confuse this 40 euro fee with court costs: it is a substantive right attached to the late payment itself, and it is claimed inside the injonction de payer or the later writ. One drafting trap for foreign groups: if your French subsidiary uses the US or UK parent template that says nothing about French penalties, you can still claim the statutory default rate, but you lose clarity and you invite the debtor to argue an agreed lower rate. Align the French CGV (conditions générales de vente, your standard terms) with Article L441-1 of the Commercial Code, which makes those terms the single basis of the commercial negotiation and requires communication to any professional buyer on request, and keep a French-language version even when the group works in English.
Abusive payment behaviour can also engage civil liability beyond interest. Article L442-1 of the Commercial Code punishes, among other practices, obtaining an advantage manifestly disproportionate to its counterpart, imposing obligations that create a significant imbalance, or applying discriminatory payment conditions without real counterpart. Brutal rupture of an established commercial relationship without sufficient written notice is actionable on the same article. For a foreign-owned supplier dependent on one French key account, this matters when late payment is not an accident but a method: systematic 100-day payments, unilateral deductions, or sudden volume cuts paired with longer terms. Document the pattern, keep the email trail, and treat the claim as two layers, the invoice debt plus the abusive practice, because the second layer supports damages above penalties and justifies interim pressure.
B. Why does your French invoice itself decide whether you recover quickly or litigate for a year?
Collection speed in France starts with the invoice, not with the court. Article L441-9 of the Commercial Code requires every B2B purchase or service to be invoiced, the seller to issue the invoice upon delivery or performance, and each side to keep a copy within tax retention limits. The invoice must state the names and addresses of the parties, the date of sale or service, quantity, precise description, unit price excluding VAT, any price reduction acquired at that date, the payment date, the discount terms for early payment, the penalty rate applicable the day after the payment date, and the fixed recovery fee. It must also mention the purchase order number where the buyer issued one. Payment is deemed made when the funds are placed at the disposal of the beneficiary. Breach carries administrative fines up to 75,000 euros for an individual and 375,000 euros for a company, doubled on repeat within two years. The greffe (registry of the commercial court) and the tax administration both read invoices literally, so a foreign founder should treat the French invoice as a regulated document, not an unregulated PDF generated by the group ERP.
The injonction de payer is only available for claims whose amount is fixed by the contract. Article 1405 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides that “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”. The Cour de cassation enforces this strictly. In a published ruling of 27 March 2025, Third Civil Chamber, No. 23-21.501, the Court held that “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”, and quashed an order covering rental damage that was not fixed by the lease terms alone, even though the amount looked clear on letters and receipts. Read the full ruling at Cour de cassation, Third Civil Chamber, 27 March 2025, No. 23-21.501. For your company, the lesson is direct. A signed quote, order, framework agreement or rate card that prices the goods or the daily rate makes the claim fast-track eligible. A pure quantum meruit, unpriced extra works, or damage valuation needs an expert will be pushed to the ordinary writ. Price it in the contract, reference the purchase order on the invoice, attach the delivery slips, and keep proof that the debtor never protested the invoices when they were sent.
Three invoice habits separate foreign companies that recover in weeks from those that litigate for a year. First, issue fast and reference the contract: invoice number, date, order number, delivery date, payment date, penalty rate, 40 euro fee, VAT, and bank details, all consistent with the CGV. Second, chase in writing early: a polite reminder at day five, a formal mise en demeure (formal demand) by email and registered letter at day fifteen, stating the penalties and the fee now running. The mise en demeure is not needed to trigger penalties, but it fixes evidence, stops the debtor from later claiming surprise, and starts the paper trail the judge will read. Third, do not accept vague set-offs: French debtors sometimes deduct alleged penalties or return charges unilaterally. Reply in writing within days, contest the deduction line by line, and require a credit note process. Silence on invoices and statements of account is read against the debtor in commercial courts, while silence from the creditor is read as weakness. Keep everything in a single claim file per debtor: contract, orders, delivery proofs, invoices, reminders, and the BODACC (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, the official gazette where insolvency openings are published) check showing the debtor is not already in sauvegarde (safeguard), redressement judiciaire (court-supervised recovery) or liquidation judiciaire (court-ordered liquidation), because once such a proceeding opens, payment at due date is frozen and the 40 euro fee cannot be invoked for post-opening maturities.
Where the debtor is already insolvent, change track immediately. Penalty interest and the flat fee still exist as a declaration, but forced payment by one creditor alone is barred and you must declare the claim (déclaration de créance) to the mandataire judiciaire (the court-appointed insolvency representative) within two months of the BODACC publication, or two months plus distance periods from abroad. Miss that deadline and the fast-track logic collapses. A weekly BODACC and Infogreffe check on every debtor above 5,000 euros costs minutes and saves write-offs. The INPI guichet unique (the single online company formalities portal) and Infogreffe show the Kbis and collective proceedings mentions; the BODACC confirms the opening judgment. Build this check into your foreign back-office routine before paying a commissaire de justice to serve an order on an empty shell.
II. How do you force payment from abroad without flying to France?
A. How do you obtain an injonction de payer and survive the debtor objection from abroad?
The injonction de payer is a one-sided paper application, ideal for a director abroad. You file a request (requête) with the court of the debtor domicile, attaching the contract, invoices, delivery proofs, reminders, and a statement of account with penalties and the 40 euro fees. No hearing, no travel. Article 1406 of the Code of Civil Procedure sends the case to the protection litigation judge or the president of the judicial or commercial court within their subject-matter limits, and fixes territorial jurisdiction at the court of the place where the debtor, or one of the debtors, resides. Those rules are public policy: any contrary clause is deemed unwritten and the judge must raise lack of jurisdiction on his own motion. In plain terms, sue at the debtor door, even if your CGV names another court. For Paris-region debtors, that usually means the tribunal de commerce de Paris for commercial claims between companies, or the tribunal judiciaire de Paris for civil claims; service-public.fr and Infogreffe publish the Cerfa (the official numbered administrative form) request forms and the filing points, and the greffe accepts filing by a French lawyer or by the company representative with proper authority.
The judge either rejects, or issues an ordonnance portant injonction de payer (the payment order) for all or part of the sum. Your commissaire de justice then serves it on the debtor with a summons either to pay or to file opposition (to object) with stated defences. Article 1412 of the Code of Civil Procedure is one line: “Le débiteur peut s’opposer à l’ordonnance portant injonction de payer.” Article 1416 of the Code of Civil Procedure gives the debtor one month from personal service to object, extended where service was not personal until one month after the first personal act or the first enforcement measure freezing assets. Opposition needs no reasoning at filing: a simple declaration at the greffe sends the whole case to a full hearing. Do not read an opposition as a defeat. It converts the paper order into ordinary litigation where your filed evidence usually dominates, and many debtors object only to gain time, then settle once a hearing date lands.
Two recent Cour de cassation rulings shape strategy around opposition. First, even a defective opposition interrupts time limits and can be regularised until the judge rules. In a ruling of 18 January 2024, Second Civil Chamber, No. 21-23.033, the Court recalled that “La demande en justice, même en référé, interrompt le délai de prescription ainsi que le délai de forclusion”, a quote from Article 2241 of the Civil Code, and held that “Il en découle que 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. Sa régularisation reste possible jusqu’à ce que le juge statue.” Read it at Cour de cassation, Second Civil Chamber, 18 January 2024, No. 21-23.033. Second, once opposition is lodged, the later judgment replaces the order entirely. In a ruling of 11 September 2025, Second Civil Chamber, No. 24-14.766, the Court stated that “Aux termes de ce texte, le jugement du tribunal se substitue à l’ordonnance portant injonction de payer”, censuring a court that had declared the opposition admissible yet kept the order alive, because an order “n’est une décision qu’en l’absence d’opposition”. Read it at Cour de cassation, Second Civil Chamber, 11 September 2025, No. 24-14.766, with the governing text at Article 1420 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which provides that “Le jugement du tribunal se substitue à l’ordonnance portant injonction de payer.” Practically: after opposition, prepare the full trial file, update the account with interest to the hearing date, add the recovery fees per invoice, and ask the court to decide everything, because nothing of the provisional order survives on its own.
Running this from abroad is an organisation question. Give your French lawyer a standing authority (pouvoir) with Kbis less than three months old, identity of the legal representative, and specimen signature; most hearings after opposition can be handled on written submissions without your presence, and visioconference is increasingly accepted for foreign directors before the commercial courts. Calendar the opposition month from the service report (procès-verbal de signification), not from the order date, and instruct the lawyer in advance: if opposition, immediate exchange of exhibits, request for a short hearing date, and parallel settlement call offering payment in days against waiver of part of the penalties. Debtors who discover that opposition did not kill the penalties and added court costs often pay within weeks. Where the claim is not fixed enough for the fast track, file the assignation au fond (ordinary writ) directly with the same file rather than losing two months on a rejected requête. And where the debtor sits in another EU country but the contract is performed in France, consider the European order for payment under Regulation 1896/2006 alongside the French route: one standard form, cross-border service, and direct enforceability if unopposed, with the French injonction de payer kept for French-domiciled debtors or French assets.
B. How do you turn the court order into money: enforcement, guarantees and cross-border collection?
An unopposed order becomes enforceable once the greffe affixes the formule exécutoire (the enforcement formula) after the opposition month expires with proof of service. Article L111-2 of the Code of Civil Enforcement Procedures provides that “Le créancier muni d’un titre exécutoire constatant une créance liquide et exigible peut en poursuivre l’exécution forcée sur les biens de son débiteur dans les conditions propres à chaque mesure d’exécution.” Your commissaire de justice then moves in stages: commandement de payer (formal order to pay), saisie-attribution (third-party garnishment, typically the debtor bank account), saisie-vente (seizure of tangible goods), or saisie des rémunérations where the debtor is an individual. Bank garnishment is usually fastest against a trading French company: the bank freezes the balance up to the claim for fifteen working days, then pays. Costs of enforcement (frais de recouvrement forcé) fall on the debtor on top of your 40 euro fees and interest, which is why a credible enforcement threat settles many files. From abroad, you do not need to attend: the officer acts on the enforceable title plus your instructions, and reports by email with the procès-verbal (official report) for your accounts and auditors.
Timing and prescription decide enforcement success. The general commercial prescription is five years, but do not sit on it: bank balances move, leases change, and groups restructure. Filing the requête interrupts prescription, and so does service, the opposition, and each enforcement act. Where the debtor offers a payment plan, sign a short written schedule with an acceleration clause and acknowledgment of the full balance including penalties and fees; an informal email chain is not enough if you later need to resume enforcement. Where the debtor owns real estate, consider a hypothèque judiciaire provisoire (provisional judicial mortgage) or a saisie conservatoire (protective attachment) before judgment where urgency and a threatened recovery are shown: the judge of execution (juge de l’exécution) can authorise freezing accounts or registering security ex parte, which transforms settlement talks. These protective measures require a French lawyer application with precise evidence of the claim and the risk, so keep bank details (RIB, relevé d’identité bancaire), asset hints from the Kbis and beneficial owners register (RBE, registre des bénéficiaires effectifs), and any group guarantee letters in the file.
Cross-border collection adds one layer, not a new world. If your French company holds a French enforceable title and the debtor has assets in France, enforce in France regardless of where you live: your foreign residence changes nothing to the commissaire de justice powers. If the French debtor has assets in another EU Member State, circulate the French judgment under the Brussels I bis Regulation with the Article 53 certificate, then enforce locally without exequatur. If instead your French company must sue a debtor domiciled in another EU country, the European order for payment lets you file one multilingual form, often before the French court with jurisdiction under the contract, and obtain an order served abroad that becomes directly enforceable if the debtor does not oppose within thirty days. Outside the EU, check the bilateral position and plan for exequatur (the recognition proceeding) or sue where the assets sit. In every scenario, keep the currency, VAT and tax treatment consistent: penalties and the 40 euro fee follow the invoice currency, interest runs to actual payment, and recovered interest is taxable income of the French company to book with your expert-comptable (the French chartered accountant). Your URSSAF (Unions de recouvrement des cotisations de sécurité sociale et d’allocations familiales, the social contributions collector) position is unaffected by customer arrears, so social deadlines keep running even when clients do not pay.
Paris and Île-de-France practice deserves one note. Volumes before the tribunal de commerce de Paris are heavy, so paper quality decides speed: indexed exhibits, a one-page chronology, a computation table per invoice with principal, penalty rate and period, 40 euro fee, and VAT-exclusive totals will get an order faster than a narrative bundle. The greffe rejects sloppy requêtes with missing Kbis, missing authority, or inconsistent amounts between the request and the invoices. File clean, in French, with certified translations of any English contract excerpts the claim relies on, because the judge reads French. A Paris commissaire de justice serves within days; enforcement against Paris bank branches works the same day the saisie-attribution lands. Budget realistically: court fees are modest, service and enforcement fees follow regulated tariffs, and lawyer fees for a standard unopposed file are a fraction of one invoice, while an opposed file that goes to full hearing costs more but usually ends with costs and Article 700 compensation shifted at least partly to the losing debtor.
Conclusion
A French client who does not pay is not a fatality for a company run from abroad. Cap the deadline at sixty days from issue, print the penalty rate and the 40 euro fee on every invoice, remind in writing within days, and file a clean injonction de payer at the debtor court with contract-priced exhibits. Expect that some debtors will object within the month: the objection opens the full case but does not erase penalties, interest or fees, and the later judgment replaces the provisional order entirely. Then enforce without travelling, through a commissaire de justice, starting with the bank account, while protecting limitation with each procedural act. Check BODACC before spending on service, secure payment plans in writing with acceleration, and use the European order or Brussels I bis circulation where the assets cross borders. Run this routine invoice by invoice, with a French lawyer holding standing authority and the Kbis, RIB and RBE details on file, and distance stops mattering. When the next invoice passes its deadline, act in the same week: compute the penalties, add the 40 euro fee, send the demand, and instruct the requête. Speed plus paperwork is what turns foreign ownership from a weakness into leverage.
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