You run a company in France from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, and a French client has stopped paying. Most foreign owners in this position claim the invoice total and write off the rest as lost time. That resignation is expensive, because French law prices late payment automatically: penalties accrue from the day after the due date without any court decision, a fixed recovery indemnity applies per invoice, court interest runs on the judgment, and the administration fines professional debtors who pay late. This guide shows how to compute every euro a late payer owes you, how to claim penalties without falling into the stacking trap the supreme court punishes, and how to collect the whole amount from abroad through the fast paper procedure and seizure. Every French acronym is explained on first use: Kbis (the official certificate proving your company exists), greffe (the registry office of the commercial court), BODACC (the official bulletin publishing company and insolvency events), URSSAF (the agency collecting employer social contributions), INPI (the industrial property and company register operator), DGCCRF (the competition and consumer-affairs authority that fines late payers), and DSN (the monthly payroll declaration).

Founders who master this arithmetic settle faster and litigate better. A reminder that already quantifies penalties, indemnity and interest pressures the debtor more than a bare principal with a vague threat, and a petition that presents one consistent table gets its payment order in weeks instead of months. Readers who are still choosing their French vehicle should first read our companion overview of how a foreign founder chooses between SAS, SARL, branch and subsidiary in France, because the strategy below assumes you already invoice through a registered French entity with a Kbis, a French bank account and proper books. This article then answers the question that guide leaves open: once the deadline has passed, how much does the debtor really owe you, and how do you recover it without moving to Paris for six months.

I. What Your French Debtor Owes on Top of the Invoice: Due Dates, Penalty Rates and the Fixed Fee

A. How French Law Counts Late Money: Sixty-Day Cap, ECB-Linked Rate and the Forty-Euro Indemnity

Start with the due date, because everything else runs from it. If your contract says nothing, the statute provides that the balance must be paid within thirty days of receipt of the goods or performance of the service. Parties may agree on a longer period, but that agreed period is capped. 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 (the agreed period for paying sums due may not exceed sixty days from the invoice date). A derogation allows forty-five days end of month from the invoice date where the contract expressly provides for it. Any clause promising ninety or one hundred twenty days is unenforceable, and the statutory cap replaces it. Check your general terms of sale now: if they promise payment at ninety days, a French judge will not apply that clause.

From the day after that due date, money starts growing without any reminder. The Commercial Code provides for late penalties at a rate that the parties may set, subject to a legal floor linked to the European Central Bank refinancing rate plus ten points, and a fixed recovery indemnity of forty euros per invoice. These penalties run by operation of law: you do not need a prior court decision to claim them, and you list them on the payment reminder and then in the court petition. The practical point for a founder abroad is to show them as separate lines on every reminder: principal, penalties at the contractual or statutory rate, forty-euro indemnity, and where applicable VAT on the principal. A debtor who receives a reminder that already quantifies penalties settles faster than one who receives a bare principal with a vague threat.

The other side of the coin is the pressure the administration puts on late payers. The Commercial Code provides that breach of the statutory payment periods exposes the debtor to an administrative fine, since Est passible d’une amende administrative dont le montant ne peut excéder 75 000 € pour une personne physique et deux millions d’euros pour une personne morale (breach is punishable by an administrative fine of up to 75,000 euros for an individual and two million euros for a company). The DGCCRF publishes these fines, and a supplier who mentions in a negotiation letter that late payment is also an administrative offence changes the tone of the exchange. You do not impose the fine yourself, but referencing it in the formal notice reminds a professional debtor that delay has a public cost beyond your file.

For a foreign founder, the calculation checklist before any court step is therefore short and numerical: confirm the applicable due date under the contract read against the sixty-day cap, compute penalties from the day after that date at the contractual rate or the statutory floor, add the forty-euro indemnity per unpaid invoice, verify whether VAT applies to the principal, decide whether to claim capitalisation for older interest, and never add penalties and statutory interest on top of each other for the same period. Put that table on one page. It becomes exhibit one in every procedure below, and the judge who sees a clean table grants the order faster than the judge who must reconstruct your arithmetic.

Take a concrete file to see the scale. Your SAS issued three invoices of 20,000 euros each on 1 September, payable at thirty days, and the client paid nothing. On 2 October, penalties start running on 60,000 euros at your contractual rate, or at the statutory floor where your terms are silent, plus three times forty euros of fixed indemnity. After six months of silence at a contractual rate of 1.5 percent per month, penalties alone approach 5,400 euros on top of the principal, before court interest and costs. That figure belongs on the first page of the formal notice and the petition, computed invoice by invoice with its own start date. Debtors who discover that delay has a daily price stop treating your reminders as free correspondence.

B. What the Supreme Court Forbids You to Stack: Penalties or Interest, Capitalisation and the 2024 Ruling

Knowing the amount is only half the work. The other half is claiming it in a form the judge accepts, and the published case law draws a hard line every petition must respect.

The Cour de cassation, the supreme court for civil and commercial matters, clarified the nature of these penalties in a published decision that every credit manager should know. In its judgment of 24 April 2024, pourvoi No. R 22-24.275, ECLI:FR:CCASS:2024:CO00202, available at Cour de cassation, commercial chamber, 24 April 2024, No. 22-24.275, the facts were simple: la Société française d’étude et de formation (la société SFEF) a assigné la société Urban Way en paiement d’une somme provisionnelle correspondant à des factures impayées (the French training company sued for provisional payment of unpaid invoices under two staff-training contracts). The creditor claimed both contractual late penalties of 1.5 percent per month and statutory interest from the formal notice. The Court approved the refusal to cumulate them and stated: 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 (the late penalty under the Commercial Code is default interest), adding that 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 (having the same nature, it does not cumulate with statutory default interest). The lesson is direct: claim the higher of the two streams, penalties or interest, not both added together. Pleading both in cumulation signals to the judge that the file was prepared without knowledge of this published ruling, and the Versailles-style rejection in that case shows how a court in summary proceedings treats a serious dispute on cumulation.

Beyond interest, the Civil Code adds two useful mechanisms. First, a judgment awarding a sum bears interest at the legal rate even without a specific request, since 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 (any award of damages bears interest at the legal rate even absent a request or special provision). Second, interest accrued for a full year can itself bear interest, known as capitalisation, where the contract provides for it or a court decision so orders, because Les intérêts échus, dus au moins pour une année entière, produisent intérêt si le contrat l’a prévu ou si une décision de justice le précise (interest due for at least a full year bears interest if the contract or a court decision so provides). Ask for capitalisation expressly in the petition when the debt is old: judges grant it routinely when requested, and they rarely grant it when the petition stays silent.

II. How You Claim and Collect These Penalties From Abroad: Formal Notice, Fast Court Route and Seizure

A. How the Formal Notice and the Paper Bundle Preserve Every Euro: Mise en Demeure, Proof and the Injonction de Payer

Penalties are only worth what the file behind them is worth. Before any judge sees the case, the claim must be documented, quantified and formally demanded, because the fast procedure below decides on papers alone.

Courts do not collect vague debts. They collect documented ones. Before drafting any petition, assemble four layers of proof: the contract or accepted order showing the price, the proof of performance such as delivery slips, signed timesheets, acceptance reports or platform logs, the invoices with number, date, due date and payment terms, and the exchanges showing the debtor received them and did not dispute them in substance. A debtor who replied that the goods arrived damaged or the service was incomplete raises a dispute on the merits that may defeat a fast paper procedure. A debtor who simply stopped answering, or who asked three times for more time, confirms a liquid and due claim that suits the fast route perfectly. Your cover email when instructing counsel should state in one paragraph which category your file falls into, attaching the proof of delivery for each invoice claimed.

The formal notice, called mise en demeure, is the hinge between negotiation and litigation. The Civil Code provides that 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 (the debtor is put on notice by a summons or sufficient interpellation, or by mere exigibility where the contract so provides). In practice, send a letter that states the exact principal per invoice, the penalties and indemnity claimed, a clear deadline of eight to fifteen days, your bank details, and the warning that you will file for an injonction de payer and enforcement without further notice. Send it by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt or by a commissaire de justice, and keep the tracking slip. From abroad, the most reliable route is to have the letter sent by your French counsel or the enforcement officer directly, so the date and content are beyond challenge.

Three drafting habits separate files that succeed in weeks from files that drag for a year. First, claim against the correct legal person: compare the name on the contract, the Kbis of the debtor obtained from the INPI company register, and any BODACC publication showing a merger, transfer or insolvency. Suing a trade name instead of the company, or suing a company that has since been absorbed, produces an order against the wrong party that cannot be enforced. Second, verify that the debtor is not already in insolvency proceedings by checking the BODACC and the court registry: if a redressement judiciaire (rehabilitation) or liquidation judiciaire (liquidation) has been opened, individual enforcement is frozen and you must declare the claim in the proceedings instead. Third, quantify precisely and consistently: the principal in the notice, the petition and the exhibits must match to the cent, and penalties must be computed from the correct start date per invoice. Judges reject petitions where the total on page one differs from the sum of the invoices attached, and from abroad you cannot fix that at the hearing because there is no hearing in the first phase.

Keep also the limitation clock in mind. Commercial claims between merchants are subject to a five-year limitation, and each formal step that interrupts it must be proven. A file where the oldest invoice is four years and six months old needs filing within weeks, not quarters. A file where the debtor acknowledged the debt in writing last month restarts the discussion on proof, because an acknowledgment resets the clock. Mention the dates openly to counsel: hiding an old invoice at the bottom of a list and hoping the judge will not notice wastes the filing fee and alerts the debtor for nothing.

When these four layers are complete, the file is ready for the fast route. The petition will attach the contract, the delivery proofs, the invoices, the formal notice with its receipt, the penalty table, the debtor Kbis and the recent BODACC search. That bundle, usually thirty to sixty pages, is what the president of the commercial court reads alone in chambers. Judges grant clean bundles and reject approximate ones. The next section explains where that bundle goes and what happens after the judge signs.

The injonction de payer is a one-sided procedure: the creditor files papers, the judge decides on papers, and only then is the debtor served and allowed to object. The Code of Civil Procedure opens it widely, since 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 (recovery may be sought by order to pay where the claim has a contractual cause or results from a statutory obligation and is for a fixed amount). Unpaid invoices for goods delivered and services performed are the textbook case. Claims based purely on tort, or claims whose amount requires expert assessment, do not belong here and should go to ordinary proceedings.

Jurisdiction follows the debtor, not the creditor. The Code provides that La demande est portée, selon le cas, devant le juge des contentieux de la protection ou devant le président du tribunal judiciaire ou du tribunal de commerce, dans la limite de la compétence d’attribution de ces juridictions (the application goes to the protection judge or the president of the judicial or commercial court within their subject-matter jurisdiction). For a commercial invoice between companies, that is the president of the tribunal de commerce (commercial court) of the place where the debtor lives, and the territorial rule is a matter of public policy that the judge raises on his own motion. File at the greffe of the debtor’s court with the petition, the exhibits, and where you are represented the power of attorney. From abroad, counsel files electronically or by post, and no travel is needed at this stage. A filing in the wrong city produces a rejection that costs a month, so the debtor Kbis address controls the choice of court, not your French office address.

If the file convinces the judge, he issues an order requiring payment of the principal plus the penalties and costs he allows. A commissaire de justice then serves that order on the debtor. Service triggers the decisive deadline: L’opposition est formée dans le mois qui suit la signification de l’ordonnance (opposition must be filed within one month after service of the order). Within that month the debtor may file an opposition by simple declaration at the same greffe, without stating reasons at that stage. The effect of that month is protective for the debtor, because Quelles que soient les modalités de la signification, le délai d’opposition prévu au premier alinéa de l’article 1416 est suspensif d’exécution (whatever the method of service, the opposition period suspends enforcement). You cannot seize during that month on the basis of the order alone, and an opposition filed in time also suspends enforcement until the court re-examines the case.

Two outcomes follow. If no opposition is filed within the month, and after an additional period the order becomes enforceable, counsel asks the greffe to affix the enforcement formula, turning the order into a judgment equivalent that a commissaire de justice can enforce by seizure. If opposition is filed, the case continues as ordinary adversarial proceedings before the same court: the judge summons both parties, hears arguments, and renders a judgment that replaces the order. Opposition is therefore not a defeat; it is the price of the fast attempt. A creditor whose file is strong welcomes the hearing, because the debtor who opposed without a substantive defence often settles once a hearing date is set. A creditor whose file is weak learns at low cost that ordinary proceedings with witnesses and expertise were needed from the start.

Costs and timing stay attractive for foreign owners. Court fees for the petition are modest, representation is not mandatory but strongly recommended when you live abroad, and judges in commercial courts issue orders in days to a few weeks on clean files. Service by the enforcement officer takes another one to three weeks depending on whether the debtor evades receipt. The one-month opposition window then runs, followed by the enforceability formalities. A realistic calendar from filing to an enforceable order without opposition is two to four months, most of it waiting for service and deadlines rather than working the file. That calendar collapses only when the petition names the wrong entity, claims an unliquidated amount, or forgets the formal notice: each defect produces a rejection or a successful opposition that returns the parties to square one.

When the debtor is insolvent, pause this route entirely. An order to pay against a company already under redressement or liquidation judiciaire cannot lead to individual seizure, and the claim must be declared to the creditors’ representative within the published deadline after the BODACC notice. The BODACC check performed before filing, described in the previous section, is what prevents this wasted step. Where the debtor is solvent but slow, the order to pay remains the fastest domestic tool, and it prepares the enforcement described below.

B. How the Order Becomes Money in Your Account: European Payment Order, Enforceable Title and the Commissaire de Justice

When the debtor sits in another European Union country, or when your French company invoices a foreign client with assets in France, the European payment order under Regulation No. 1896/2006 offers a parallel paper route. The creditor files a standard form, the court of origin issues the European order, and after service and expiry of the opposition period the order is declared enforceable and circulates in the other Member State without a separate recognition procedure. The French experience with this instrument is illustrated by a recent Cour de cassation decision of 21 May 2026, pourvoi No. G 22-19.530, ECLI:FR:CCASS:2026:C200512, available at Cour de cassation, second civil chamber, 21 May 2026, No. 22-19.530. In that case, à la requête de la société Soluzioni di Luisa Pellechia (la société italienne), le tribunal de Milan (Italie) a délivré le 25 février 2020 une ordonnance d’injonction de payer européenne (at the Italian company’s request, the Milan court issued a European payment order against the French company), and Le 2 décembre 2020, sur le fondement de cette ordonnance, la société italienne a fait pratiquer, en France, une saisie-attribution sur les comptes bancaires de la société française (on 2 December 2020 the Italian company carried out a garnishment of the French company’s bank accounts in France). The dispute then moved to the French enforcement judge and ultimately to the Cour de cassation on the articulation between the European order, its enforceability declaration in Italy, and challenges in France. The practical message for a foreign founder is symmetrical: a European order obtained in the client’s country can be enforced in France against French bank accounts, and a European order obtained for your French company can be enforced abroad, but service dates, declaration of enforceability and the court competent for challenges must be tracked with the same rigour as domestic deadlines. Keep every certificate of service and every declaration of enforceability in the file, and instruct counsel in both countries before seizing.

Once you hold an enforceable title, whether a French order to pay with enforcement formula, a judgment after opposition, or a European order declared enforceable, French enforcement law gives the creditor direct access to the debtor’s assets. The principle is stated simply: 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 (a creditor with an enforceable title evidencing a liquid and due claim may pursue forced execution against the debtor’s property under the conditions for each enforcement measure). The commissaire de justice chooses the measure: saisie-attribution (garnishment of bank accounts, where the bank freezes and then pays the sums held), saisie-vente (seizure of tangible goods for auction), or saisie des rémunérations and third-party notices for other receivables. Bank garnishment is the workhorse for B2B invoices: it is fast, it surprises debtors who ignored paper steps, and it produces payment or negotiation within days of the freeze. Your enforcement officer needs the enforceable title, the debtor’s exact identity and bank details where known, and an advance on costs that is added to the debtor’s bill where the seizure succeeds.

Three cross-border habits make enforcement from abroad work. First, give the enforcement officer a French contact point with authority to decide: accept a payment plan or not, accept partial payment against withdrawal of the seizure or not, approve additional costs for a second measure or not. Officers who must wait forty-eight hours for an answer across time zones lose the momentum that a freeze creates. Second, keep funds flowing correctly: the seized sums transit through the officer’s escrow and then to your French company account, with statements that your accountant needs for VAT and corporate tax. A payment received directly from the debtor after the seizure must be reported to the officer immediately to stop further measures and avoid over-collection. Third, calendar the debtor’s remedies: the debtor may challenge the seizure before the juge de l’exécution (enforcement judge) within one month of service, and that challenge does not automatically suspend payment to you unless the judge orders otherwise. Counsel monitors that docket while you continue business.

Where the debtor has no seizable assets in France, do not multiply seizures for show. Ask counsel for an asset report, consider a mesure conservatoire (protective measure) on the next expected receivable where urgency is proven, and weigh assignment of the claim or credit insurance for the future. Where the debtor disputes the invoice seriously, pivot early to ordinary proceedings and request interim payment in summary proceedings rather than repeating the paper route that already produced an opposition. The published 2024 ruling on penalties helps there too: even in interim proceedings, the judge applies the no-cumulation rule, so the provisional claim should present penalties or interest, with the forty-euro indemnity and costs, in one consistent table.

For founders managing France remotely, the sequence that collects most invoices is therefore: precise formal notice with penalty table, domestic or European order to pay on a complete bundle, service and watch of the one-month opposition window, affixing of the enforcement formula or pursuit of the hearing after opposition, then targeted seizure by the commissaire de justice with a reachable decision-maker on your side. Each step is documented, each deadline is calendared in both time zones, and each amount claimed matches the exhibits to the cent. Files run this way settle at every stage: some debtors pay on the formal notice, others pay on service of the order, others pay on the bank freeze. Only the files with a genuine dispute on delivery or price reach a full hearing, and those files were identifiable from the delivery proofs assembled at the start.

Conclusion

A late French invoice carries its own price tag, and the foreign owner who computes it collects more while litigating less. Capped payment periods set the starting line, penalties and the fixed indemnity run from the day after the due date, the 2024 published ruling forbids stacking penalties with statutory interest for the same period, and capitalisation remains available where expressly requested. A quantified formal notice, a consistent petition at the greffe, a watched one-month opposition window and a targeted seizure by the commissaire de justice turn that arithmetic into money in the account. Keep exact contracts, delivery proofs, numbered invoices and current Kbis and BODACC searches, and the file that is ready on paper is the file that gets paid in full.