You formed your French company from London, New York or Dubai, you delivered the goods or the service, you sent the invoice — and nothing comes back. Emails go unanswered, the client promises payment next month, and your French subsidiary’s cash flow starts to suffer while you are thousands of kilometres away. This is one of the most common shocks for foreign founders doing business in France, and it has a reassuring side: French commercial law is unusually creditor-friendly. Interest for late payment runs automatically, a fixed recovery fee applies without any reminder, and a fast paper-based court procedure can turn your invoice into an enforceable order without a full trial. This guide explains, for a non-French business reader, how to draft invoices that create money by themselves, how to calculate what your debtor really owes you, and how to obtain a court order quickly — including when the debtor sits outside France and when the clock is running. It assumes your business runs through a French vehicle such as a SAS (société par actions simplifiée, the flexible joint-stock company most foreign founders choose) or a SARL (société à responsabilité limitée, the limited liability company with stricter statutory rules), selling to other businesses. Every French acronym is explained, and every decisive rule is quoted from the statute or decision that states it, with an official link.

I. Your invoice is your first enforcement tool: what French law adds to every business-to-business bill

A. The compulsory lines that create automatic money: due date, penalty rate and the flat recovery fee

Under French law, a sale of goods or a provision of services between professionals must be invoiced, and the invoice is a regulated document. Article L441-9 of the Commercial Code lists what it must contain: the names and addresses of both parties, the date of the sale or service, the quantity, the precise description and the unit price excluding VAT of what was sold or provided, any price reduction acquired at the date of the transaction, and — decisive for you — three payment lines. The statute states that “La facture mentionne la date à laquelle le règlement doit intervenir.” The same article requires the invoice to show the discount terms for early payment, the rate of the penalties due from the day after the payment date printed on the invoice, and the amount of the flat-rate indemnity for recovery costs due if payment arrives late. In practice, many invoices issued by young foreign-owned companies omit the penalty rate or the flat-fee line because their home-country template does not include them. Add all three lines to your French template now: without a payment date on the invoice, the automatic machinery described below has no starting point, and an incomplete invoice exposes your own company to an administrative fine, since the same text provides that “Tout manquement au I est passible d’une amende administrative dont le montant ne peut excéder 75 000 € pour une personne physique et 375 000 € pour une personne morale.”

Once the invoice is compliant, French law caps payment periods strictly and punishes overruns automatically. Article L441-10 of the Commercial Code, the provision foreign founders should know by heart, organises the whole regime. Unless your sales terms or a negotiated agreement say otherwise, the payment period cannot exceed thirty days after receipt of the goods or performance of the service. Where the parties agree on a period, it cannot exceed sixty days from the invoice date. One agreed alternative exists: a maximum of forty-five days end of month from the invoice date, but only if it is expressly stipulated in the contract and is not a manifest abuse towards the creditor. For periodic invoices within the meaning of fiscal rules, the agreed period cannot exceed forty-five days from the invoice date. These ceilings are a matter of public economic order in business relations: a French customer cannot validly impose ninety-day terms on your subsidiary simply because it is the larger party. Check your general terms of sale (conditions générales de vente) today and renegotiate any customer contract that exceeds sixty days, because the penalty rate below applies by reference to the lawful due date, not to whatever excessive period the debtor claims.

The penalty rate itself is where foreign founders often underestimate their rights. Your contract may set a rate, but it can never fall below three times the legal interest rate. Failing such a clause, the statutory rate applies, and Article L441-10 fixes it as follows: “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 points is a deliberately dissuasive rate: with a refinancing rate of two per cent, late penalties accrue at twelve per cent per year. The applicable rate is frozen per half-year — the rate in force on 1 January for the first half of the year, the rate in force on 1 July for the second half — so you always know which figure to apply to a given overdue period. Two features make this regime formidable. First, the penalties are due “exigibles le jour suivant la date de règlement figurant sur la facture”, from the day after the due date on the invoice. Second, “Les pénalités de retard sont exigibles sans qu’un rappel soit nécessaire.” No reminder letter, no formal notice, no phone call is needed for interest to start running: the day after the due date, the meter is on, by operation of law.

On top of interest, every late-paying professional owes your company a flat recovery indemnity automatically. The statute provides that “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 implementing decree sets the figure every founder should memorise: “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 overdue invoice, due automatically, and if your actual recovery costs exceed that sum you may claim additional compensation with supporting documents. One boundary matters: you cannot claim these indemnities where insolvency proceedings — sauvegarde, redressement or liquidation judiciaire — forbid payment of your claim at its due date; a customer placed under court protection follows the collective-proceedings regime, not the late-payment regime. For every solvent customer, however, the arithmetic of an unpaid invoice is: principal, plus ECB-plus-ten-points interest from the day after the due date with no reminder, plus forty euros, plus proven extra costs.

Courts apply this machinery exactly as written, as a decision of the Commercial Chamber of the Cour de cassation confirms. On 3 October 2018, in case number 16-28.075, the Court rejected an appeal against a judgment that had awarded late penalties at the ECB refinancing rate plus ten points running from the sixty-first day after each invoice, holding in clarified terms that “les pénalités de retard seront égales au minimum au taux de refinancement principal de la BCE majoré de 10 points. Selon l’article L441-6 du code de commerce, ces pénalités sont exigibles sans qu’un rappel soit nécessaire” — Article L441-6 being the former numbering of the rule now found in Article L441-10. The same judgment ordered capitalisation of the interest. Take the lesson for your ledger: on a 50,000 euro invoice overdue by six months at a twelve per cent penalty rate, interest alone exceeds 3,000 euros, plus forty euros, all without you having sent a single reminder — provided your invoice carried a due date and a penalty rate.

B. Your contract can go further than the statute — but the judge rewrites excess: penalty clauses, agreed interest and payment papers

The statutory regime is only a floor. Your sales terms and customer contracts may add a negotiated penalty clause (clause pénale): a fixed sum the failing party agrees in advance to pay as damages. French contract law honours such clauses seriously. Article 1231-5 of the Civil Code opens with the principle that where the contract stipulates that the party who fails to perform will pay a certain sum as damages, no greater or lesser sum may be awarded to the other party. A clause that doubles the invoice for any delay, however, will not survive contact with a judge. The same article continues: “le juge peut, même d’office, modérer ou augmenter la pénalité ainsi convenue si elle est manifestement excessive ou dérisoire.” The court may reduce — or increase — the agreed penalty on its own motion where it is manifestly excessive or derisory, and any contractual term attempting to remove that power is deemed unwritten. Where the obligation has been partly performed, the judge may also reduce the penalty in proportion to the benefit the partial performance brought the creditor. The practical consequence for a foreign founder is straightforward: draft penalty clauses that approximate your real loss — reminder costs, overdraft interest, administrative time, margin erosion — and keep the evidence of that loss, because a clause aligned with reality survives while a punitive multiple falls.

A recent appeal decision shows how courts perform that comparison. On 6 November 2025, the Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence, case number 21/05974, examined a supply contract under which a customer that broke an exclusivity commitment owed a flat indemnity of 40 euros excluding tax per hectolitre remaining to be delivered, with 20,517.20 euros claimed as the termination indemnity. The creditor produced a certificate from its chartered accountant showing a lost gross margin of 63,326.33 euros on the volumes never ordered. Comparing the two figures, the court held that “La somme de 20.517,20 euros réclamée au titre de l’indemnité de rupture du contrat n’apparaît donc pas excessive, motif pour lequel elle sera admise sans modération”. The claim was admitted in full, without moderation, because the agreed sum sat well below the proven loss. Mirror this method in your own contracts: have your accountant attest the margin or costs behind your penalty figures, keep that certificate with the contract file, and set liquidated sums at or below the documented harm. A clause drafted this way does double duty, because penalty clauses feed directly into the fast court procedure below: the payment-order judge determines the claim by reference to the contract terms including, where relevant, the penalty clause.

One procedural trap conditions penalty clauses, and foreign founders miss it regularly. Article 1231-5 ends with the rule that “Sauf inexécution définitive, la pénalité n’est encourue que lorsque le débiteur est mis en demeure.” Except where non-performance is final, the penalty is only incurred once the debtor has been put on formal notice. The mise en demeure — the formal notice demanding performance, sent in a provable form such as registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt — is therefore not a courtesy but a trigger. Send it as soon as the due date passes: it starts no interest (interest already runs automatically), but it unlocks your contractual penalty and creates the paper trail every judge wants to see. Your notice should identify each unpaid invoice by number, date and amount, state the total with penalties and the forty-euro indemnity, and set a short final deadline before court action. From abroad, instruct your French counsel or your local team to send it in French, by lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception, and archive the receipt: this single letter often produces payment by itself, and where it does not, it becomes exhibit number one.

Two further instruments deserve a place in a founder’s toolbox. First, negotiable payment papers: where your customer has accepted a bill of exchange (lettre de change) or subscribed a promissory note (billet à ordre), or endorsed or guaranteed one of these instruments, recovery follows the same fast track as contractual claims, as the procedural rules expressly list these undertakings alongside ordinary contracts. If a doubtful customer offers a billet à ordre to obtain longer terms, accept it in due form: you gain an additional enforcement route. Second, agreed verification procedures: where your contract provides an acceptance or verification procedure to certify that goods or services conform, that procedure must as a rule close within thirty days of delivery, and it cannot be used to push back the maximum payment period unless expressly stipulated and not abusive. A customer that invents endless quality checks to delay the due date is moving the goalposts unlawfully — diary the thirty days and treat the invoice as due when the statute says so.

II. From the unpaid bill to an enforceable order: the fast track and the cross-border toolbox

A. The payment order on paper: where to file, how service works, and the one-month deadline that decides everything

When reminders and formal notice fail, French law offers a streamlined procedure that avoids a full trial: the injonction de payer, the order to pay. A judge examines your file on paper — no hearing, no summons to the debtor at this stage — and, if the claim qualifies, issues an ordonnance, a court order enjoining the debtor to pay. The gateway conditions are set by Article 1405 of the Code of Civil Procedure: recovery may be sought through this procedure where the claim has a contractual cause or results from a statutory obligation and stands at a determined amount. The text specifies that “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”. Your file should therefore contain the contract or accepted order, the compliant invoices, proof of delivery or performance, the formal notice and its receipt, and a computation sheet showing principal, ECB-plus-ten interest per half-year rate, the forty-euro indemnity per invoice and any contractual penalty. The more arithmetic the judge can verify without interpretation, the smoother the order. Claims that are seriously disputed on their merits do not belong here; the judge who doubts refers you to the ordinary courts, which is why the documentary discipline described in part I pays off at this exact moment.

Filing in the right court matters, and the rule protects you against fine-print surprises. Article 1406 of the Code of Civil Procedure sends the petition, depending on the nature of the case, to the judge for protection disputes or to the president of the judicial court or the commercial court, within each court’s subject-matter jurisdiction. For a foreign-owned SAS or SARL suing a business customer, that is in practice the commercial court. Territorially, the statute designates “Le juge territorialement compétent est celui du lieu où demeure le ou l’un des débiteurs poursuivis.” You file where your debtor is based — the Paris courts for a Paris customer, the Lyon courts for a Lyon customer — even if your general terms point elsewhere, because these jurisdictional rules “sont d’ordre public. Toute clause contraire est réputée non écrite.” Jurisdiction clauses to the contrary are deemed unwritten, and the judge must raise lack of jurisdiction on his own motion. From abroad, the petition (requête) is lodged at the greffe — the court’s clerk office that receives filings — through French counsel: a founder in New York or Singapore does not need to fly in, but does need a representative who knows which president’s greffe receives the file and in what form.

Once granted, the order must be served on the debtor, and service starts the only deadline that counts. Service is effected by a commissaire de justice, the judicial enforcement officer who delivers court papers and later carries out enforcement. Personal service — remise à personne, delivery into the debtor’s own hands — is the gold standard, because the debtor’s right to object runs from it. Article 1416 of the Code of Civil Procedure states the rule plainly: “L’opposition est formée dans le mois qui suit la signification de l’ordonnance.” Opposition — the debtor’s objection that reopens the case — must be lodged within one month of service of the order. Where service was not made personally, the objection remains admissible until one month after the first document served personally or, failing that, after the first enforcement measure freezing the debtor’s assets in whole or in part. Instruct your commissaire de justice to pursue personal service diligently: every week gained on proper service is a week cut from the debtor’s delaying tactics.

A 2026 judgment shows what happens when the debtor sleeps through that month. On 3 August 2026, the Judicial Court of Bordeaux, case number 26/00337, ruled on an opposition to a payment order of 26 February 2025 for a 1,697.30 euro invoice, served personally on 26 May 2025 by act of commissaire de justice. The debtor objected only in October 2025. The court recalled that the debtor had one month from service, noting that “il disposait, donc, d’un délai d’un mois à compter de cette date pour former opposition”, declared the late opposition inadmissible, and held that “L’ordonnance d’injonction de payer rendue par le juge du tribunal judiciaire de BORDEAUX le 26 février 2025, régulièrement signifiée à Monsieur [J] [F], le 26 mai 2025, retrouve son plein et entier effet.” The order regained its full effect, the losing debtor bore the court costs, and the judgment carried enforcement as of right. For a creditor, the message is that a properly served order which meets no timely opposition becomes an enforceable title without any hearing on the merits.

Where the debtor does object in time, the procedure converts into an ordinary hearing — and your documentary discipline decides the outcome. On 6 May 2026, the Court of Appeal of Riom, case number 25/01562, admitted a 29,204.07 euro claim against a company in collective proceedings precisely because the debtor’s own correspondence proved the debt: in an email, the debtor had listed the missing invoices by number and amount after checking with its accountant, “sans pour autant contester ou émettre des réserves sur lesdites factures” — without disputing them or entering any reservation. The court concluded that “la cour estime que les documents produits par la SAS Pega constituent un faisceau d’indices faisant ressortir l’existence d’une créance à son bénéfice à hauteur de 29 204,07 euros TTC.” A bundle of consistent presumptions — invoices, delivery records, unanswered reminders, the debtor’s own unreserved references — established the claim. Keep every email in which the customer discusses your invoices without disputing them; silence plus paperwork wins cases. Conversely, answer every substantive complaint about quality in writing and cure or credit what is justified, so that no genuine dispute festers into a defence.

B. Your debtor is abroad, or the years are passing: the European order and the five-year guillotine

Foreign founders often face the mirror situation: the French subsidiary is the creditor, but the customer sits in another European country — or the founder wonders whether a French order helps against assets abroad. European law provides a dedicated answer alongside the domestic procedure: the European order for payment, created by Regulation (EC) No 1896/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council, whose official text is published on EUR-Lex. French courts participate fully in this system: the Code of Civil Procedure expressly provides for the European payment order in its domestic chapters, since Article 1424-3 states that “Le juge peut délivrer une injonction de payer européenne pour partie de la demande, après que le demandeur a accepté la proposition en ce sens qu’il lui a faite.” In practice, where your claim is cross-border within Europe, discuss with your counsel at the outset whether to seek a domestic injonction de payer or a European order: the European instrument travels under its regulation’s recognition regime, while the domestic order may suit debtors and assets located in France. The choice depends on where the debtor lives, where its bank accounts and goods are, and how quickly each track moves in the competent court — a case-by-case calibration, not a reflex. Founders still structuring their French presence should also read our companion guide on setting up a company in France, from bank account and Kbis registration to VAT and the first hire, because the vehicle you bill through determines which court is yours and which rules protect you.

Whichever track you choose, one deadline overhangs every unpaid business invoice in France: five years. Article L110-4 of the Commercial Code governs limitation for commercial obligations, and its first paragraph provides that “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.” Commercial claims between professionals expire after five years unless a shorter special period applies. Do not read this as five comfortable years: evidence fades, debtors dissolve or relocate, and collective proceedings reshuffle priorities. Record every invoice in your accounting diary, escalate at ninety days overdue to formal notice, and place the file with counsel early enough for a payment-order petition well within the five-year period. If a limitation deadline is approaching on a large claim, seek advice immediately rather than sending one more reminder yourself: the present article states the length of the period, not the acts that interrupt or suspend it, and only an examination of your file can say what remains possible.

Translate all of this into a routine your team can run without you boarding a plane. First, invoice hygiene: every bill carries the due date, the penalty rate, the forty-euro line, the purchase-order number where the customer uses one, and a precise description of goods or services. Second, diary discipline: the day after the due date, interest accrues automatically — log principal, applicable half-year ECB rate plus ten points, and the forty euros per invoice. Third, escalation rhythm: a commercial reminder at fifteen days, a formal mise en demeure by registered letter at thirty to forty-five days setting a final deadline, then the file to counsel for a payment-order petition before the debtor’s court, with delivery proofs and the interest computation attached. Fourth, service quality: insist on personal service by the commissaire de justice and calendar the one-month opposition window from the return of service. Fifth, cross-border reflex: flag any non-French debtor at intake so counsel selects the domestic or European track deliberately. Sixth, the five-year diary: no invoice sleeps past its fourth year without a decision — action or reasoned write-off. If your customer is based in Paris or the Paris region, the same rules apply before the Paris courts for debtors domiciled there, with the practical specifics of the world’s busiest commercial dockets: file early, serve personally, and expect a judge who has seen every delaying tactic.

Conclusion

An unpaid French invoice is not a favour owed to you; it is a claim the statute already prices and the courts enforce through a fast, largely paper-based track. Compliant invoices trigger ECB-plus-ten-points interest from the day after the due date with no reminder, add a forty-euro recovery indemnity per bill, and support contractual penalties calibrated to your proven loss. The injonction de payer converts that documented arithmetic into a judge’s order served by a commissaire de justice, which becomes enforceable if the debtor lets the one-month opposition period expire and survives a full hearing where your unanswered invoices and delivery proofs form a bundle of presumptions. Cross-border debtors meet the European order, and every claim lives under a five-year limitation that rewards early action. Build the routine once — template, diary, formal notice, petition — and distance stops mattering: your French company collects like a local, from wherever you run it.