Your Lyon customer owes you 18,400 euros. The invoice was due seventy days ago. Your reminders bounce off an inbox nobody answers, and you live in London, Dubai or New York — not in France. Every week you wait, your leverage shrinks: memories fade, the debtor’s bank balance moves, and your own cash flow absorbs the hit. French law was built for exactly this situation. It gives a foreign-based creditor two fast paper procedures that require neither a full trial nor a flight to France, it adds automatic late penalties to every commercial invoice, and it hands enforcement to a regulated officer who seizes bank balances on your behalf. This guide walks through each step in order: getting the court order from abroad, adding every euro of penalties and interest the law allows, and turning the order into money in your account. The texts are cited as in force on 8 October 2026, with three 2026 court decisions showing how judges apply them. If you are still deciding through which vehicle to operate in France, read first our guide to choosing between an SAS, a SARL, a branch and a subsidiary — the recovery tools below work for all of them, but the name on the invoice must match the registered entity.

I. Get a fast court order without flying to France: the injonction de payer and the European order

Before any judge gets involved, send one last formal demand — the mise en demeure — by registered letter with return receipt (lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception, known as RAR). It is not a legal prerequisite for the fast procedures, but judges read it as proof of good faith, and courts normally set interest running from its date: in a September 2026 judgment the Bobigny commercial court started statutory interest on the formal demand of 4 November 2024 (Tribunal de commerce de Bobigny, 2nd chamber, 15 September 2026, RG 2026F01030, full text consulted on the Judilibre database for this article). Give the debtor eight to fifteen days to pay, state the exact amount with penalties, and keep the receipt. If silence follows, choose your procedure.

A. The French injonction de payer: which court to petition, what to file, and how to do it from abroad

The injonction de payer (order-for-payment procedure) is the workhorse of French debt recovery: a judge grants an enforceable payment order on papers alone, with no hearing, provided the claim qualifies. Article 1405 of the Code of Civil Procedure states: “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”. An unpaid commercial invoice backed by a contract, a signed quote or a purchase order is the textbook case. The amount must be fixed — principal plus the penalties and interest your contract or the statute provides — not an estimate of future loss.

Jurisdiction follows the debtor, not you. Article 1406 of the Code of Civil Procedure sends the petition to the commercial court (or the judicial court for non-commercial debtors) of the place where the debtor lives, and adds: “Les règles prescrites aux alinéas précédents sont d’ordre public. Toute clause contraire est réputée non écrite.” A clause in your terms and conditions pointing to your home courts cannot move an injonction de payer elsewhere. In practice, if your debtor is domiciled in Paris, you file with the registry (greffe — the court’s administrative office) of the Paris economic-activities court, the tribunal des activités économiques de Paris, whose registry publishes a dedicated order-for-payment filing page and accepts online filing. If the debtor sits in Lyon, Marseille or Lille, the competent commercial court of that city applies. Your own address abroad changes nothing about competence.

Distance is not an obstacle because you never need to appear. Article 1407 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides: “La demande est formée par requête remise ou adressée, selon le cas, au greffe par le créancier ou par tout mandataire.” Any appointed representative — typically your French lawyer — can lodge the requête (the written petition) with the registry by post or online. The petition must state the precise amount claimed with a breakdown, and it must attach every supporting document listed in an inventory: the contract or accepted quote, the compliant invoices, delivery slips or completion reports, the signed acceptance report (procès-verbal de réception) where one exists, the reminder letters and the mise en demeure with its postal receipt. Build this file as though the debtor will contest, because the cheapest procedure becomes expensive if the file is thin.

That warning comes straight from the courts. Article 1353 of the Civil Code, which every commercial judge applies, provides: “Celui qui réclame l’exécution d’une obligation doit la prouver.” On 15 January 2026 the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal recalled the constant case law in an unpaid-works dispute: a contractual debt cannot rest on papers drawn up by the creditor alone, such as invoices, accounting extracts, reminders or formal demands (CA Aix-en-Provence, chamber 3-2, 15 January 2026, RG 21/15252, Portalis DBVB-V-B7F-BIJX3, full text consulted on the Judilibre database for this article). In that case the creditor won, but only because it combined the purchase order, both invoices and a works acceptance report signed without any reservation, a bundle the court held to establish a debt that was not seriously disputable. The lesson for a founder abroad is concrete: dig out the signed delivery note, the email where the client approved the work, the timesheets the client countersigned. An invoice alone proves nothing; an invoice inside a bundle proves everything.

Once the file is lodged, the president of the court rules without summoning the debtor. If convinced, the judge signs the ordonnance portant injonction de payer (the payment order). The order is then served on the debtor by a commissaire de justice — the regulated enforcement officer who serves court papers in France, successor to the former huissier de justice title. Service is launched at your initiative and it is urgent for a strict reason. 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.” An order not served within three months lapses entirely. Your representative should therefore instruct the commissaire de justice the day the order arrives, not the week after. The service document must also contain a formal payment demand, failing which it is void: article 1413 imposes this sommation (final demand to pay or face enforcement) on pain of nullity. Registry fees for the petition are modest and service is billed under a regulated tariff, so the whole first phase typically costs a fraction of the claim — a further reason to act rather than write off the debt.

B. The European order for payment when the debtor sits in another EU country

The French procedure above assumes a debtor domiciled in France. When the company that owes you sits in another Member State of the European Union — a Berlin distributor, a Milan supplier turned customer, a Barcelona client — a second fast track exists: the European order for payment (EOP), created by Regulation (EC) No 1896/2006 of 12 December 2006 on the European order for payment procedure (official filing page with Forms A to G). France’s official business portal summarises the dividing line: where the debtor is domiciled in another EU State (Denmark excepted), the European procedure may be used instead of the domestic one. The claim must be civil or commercial — tax, customs and administrative matters are excluded — but it may be of any amount, and the procedure runs entirely in writing with no hearing and no mandatory lawyer.

You apply on standard Form A, sent to the court of the debtor’s registered office in principle — the European Judicial Atlas tells you which court is competent in each State and in which language to draft. If the form is complete and the claim appears founded, the court issues the European order on Form E, in principle within thirty days of examining the application. The debtor then has a choice: pay the amount with interest and costs, or oppose the order within thirty days on Form F. Opposition needs no reasoning and sends the case into ordinary court proceedings under national law; without opposition, the order becomes enforceable and the court issues a declaration of enforceability on Form G. For a founder who sells across borders from a French base, the EOP avoids parallel-counsel costs: one form, one court, one timetable, and an order that circulates for enforcement throughout the Union. Note the mirror case: if you are established outside France and your debtor is French, file the French injonction de payer described in section A — your foreign domicile does not entitle you to the European track against a French debtor, since the cross-border element runs the other way.

II. Turn the paper into cash: penalties, interest and seizure by the commissaire de justice

A payment order states a sum. What sum you put in it decides whether the recovery merely repairs the loss or also prices the delay. French commercial law is unusually generous to the unpaid creditor — provided the invoice said the right things before the dispute started.

A. Late penalties, the 40-euro recovery fee and interest you must have invoiced correctly

Every invoice between professionals (business-to-business sales of goods or services) is regulated down to its wording. Article L. 441-9 of the Commercial Code opens: “Tout achat de produits ou toute prestation de service pour une activité professionnelle fait l’objet d’une facturation.” It then lists the mandatory mentions — names and addresses of both parties, date of sale or service, quantity, precise description, unit price excluding VAT, and any price reductions — and adds: “L’acheteur est tenu de la réclamer.” Keep every invoice and every accepted quote: they are the skeleton of your court file.

Payment deadlines are capped by statute, not by the stronger party’s patience. Article L. 441-10 of the Commercial Code sets the default at thirty days after receipt of the goods or performance of the service, then caps any agreed term: “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 forty-five-days-end-of-month term is possible only if expressly agreed and not abusive toward the creditor. When the deadline passes, penalties apply by operation of law: “Les pénalités de retard sont exigibles sans qu’un rappel soit nécessaire.” No reminder needed, no formal demand needed — the clock starts the day after the due date shown on the invoice. The rate, unless your terms set a higher one, equals the European Central Bank’s most recent refinancing rate plus ten percentage points, and no clause may push it below three times the French legal interest rate. The same article forces your paperwork to anticipate the dispute: your payment terms must state the applicable penalty rate and the flat recovery fee, failing which claiming them becomes needlessly difficult.

That flat fee is fixed by decree. Article D. 441-5 of the Commercial Code provides: “Le montant de l’indemnité forfaitaire pour frais de recouvrement prévue au II de l’article L. 441-10 est fixé à 40 euros.” Forty euros per unpaid invoice, owed automatically alongside the penalties, and any proven collection costs above that floor can be claimed as supplementary compensation with receipts. A June 2026 ruling shows both sides of this arithmetic. The Montpellier Court of Appeal ordered a debtor to pay 4,746.95 euros of principal across sixteen unpaid invoices, with late interest at the ECB refinancing rate plus ten percent, plus 1,074.69 euros of contractual penalties and 640 euros of flat recovery fees — sixteen invoices times forty euros. But it rejected the creditor’s extra 500-euro claim for additional collection costs, finding no proven loss distinct from what the default interest already repaired and no proof that collection costs exceeded the sixteen flat fees totalling 640 euros. The court first recalled the governing rule — proven costs above the decree’s 40-euro-per-invoice flat fee may ground supplementary compensation — then dismissed the claim for want of receipts (CA Montpellier, commercial chamber, 16 June 2026, RG 25/05174, Portalis DBVK-V-B7J-Q2K4, full text consulted on the Judilibre database for this article). Claim the forty euros systematically, add the penalty interest mechanically, and keep bailiff-equivalent receipts for anything more.

Three deadlines frame the whole strategy. First, interest: contractual penalties run from the day after the invoice due date, while statutory interest awarded by a court typically runs from the mise en demeure or from the summons — pin both dates down in your file. Second, limitation: article L. 110-4 of the Commercial Code provides that business obligations between merchants “se prescrivent par cinq ans” — five years, not ten, and courts apply it strictly. An invoice from 2020 is already dying in 2026; do not let a polite negotiation eat the limitation period. Third, the fallback: if the debtor contests seriously and the fast track stalls, article 835 of the Code of Civil Procedure lets the urgent-applications judge grant an interim payment where the obligation “n’est pas sérieusement contestable” — not seriously disputable. A thick file built for the injonction de payer doubles as the file for this référé-provision (summary payment order), which is why the documentary bundle matters more than any procedural trick.

B. Enforcement from abroad: signification, the opposition risk and seizure of the bank account

An order the debtor can still challenge is a promise, not money. 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 gives the debtor one month from service to do so: “L’opposition est formée dans le mois qui suit la signification de l’ordonnance.” Where service was not made personally on the debtor, the month runs instead from the first document served personally or the first enforcement measure freezing assets — service quality therefore matters, and a competent commissaire de justice is worth the fee. During that month you cannot force payment: opposition has suspensive effect, a point France’s public service portal confirms in its English guide to debt recovery alongside the practical details — the debtor may oppose orally at the court registry or by registered post using official form Cerfa No. 15602, and must be told that without opposition no further recourse remains. Since 1 September 2026, the registry of the judicial court must inform the creditor of any opposition within one month of receiving it, by registered letter or electronically; before that date the creditor had to request a certificate of non-opposition itself. Ask your representative to diary that check rather than assume silence means victory.

If no opposition arrives, the registry affixes the formule exécutoire (the enforcement formula) to the order, and the order becomes a titre exécutoire — an enforceable title equivalent to a judgment. Article L. 111-1 of the Code of Civil Enforcement Procedures states the principle: “Tout créancier peut, dans les conditions prévues par la loi, contraindre son débiteur défaillant à exécuter ses obligations à son égard.” From your home abroad you then instruct the commissaire de justice to seize. The most effective measure against a trading company is the saisie-attribution (garnishment): article L. 211-1 of the same Code provides that “Tout créancier muni d’un titre exécutoire constatant une créance liquide et exigible peut, pour en obtenir le paiement, saisir entre les mains d’un tiers les créances de son débiteur portant sur une somme d’argent” — in plain terms, the officer freezes the debtor’s bank balance up to your claim and the bank pays you directly. Against stock, vehicles or equipment, article L. 221-1 allows seizure and sale of tangible movables “après signification d’un commandement” — after serving a formal order to pay. You sign a mandate and advance the regulated costs; the officer handles service, deadlines and the sale. Geography disappears from the enforcement phase.

If the debtor does oppose, nothing is lost — the case simply converts into an ordinary lawsuit before the court whose president issued the order, and your bundle gets its second use. The Bobigny case cited in the introduction is the model outcome: the debtor company opposed the September 2025 order in March 2026, then neither appeared nor produced any evidence, while the creditor proved performance with matching documents. The court admitted the opposition but dismissed it as unfounded, held the claim certain, liquid and due, substituted its judgment for the payment order, added 1,000 euros of procedural costs, and recalled that first-instance judgments are provisionally enforceable as of right, meaning the judgment is enforceable immediately even on appeal (article 514: “Les décisions de première instance sont de droit exécutoires à titre provisoire à moins que la loi ou la décision rendue n’en dispose autrement.”). An opportunistic opposition that produces no documents thus buys the debtor months but changes the ending — while funding your article 700 costs award. One caution closes the picture: before spending on service and seizure, verify the debtor still exists and operates. An order against a company already in liquidation proceedings joins a queue of creditors instead of producing payment; a quick check of the company’s registration status (the Kbis extract and the public insolvency register) costs little and conditions everything.

Conclusion

An unpaid French invoice is not a write-off and not a plane ticket. Send the registered formal demand this week, assemble the bundle that proves performance — contract, compliant invoices, delivery or acceptance documents, reminders — and file the injonction de payer at the debtor’s court through a local representative, or the European order on Form A if the debtor sits in another EU State. Price the claim completely from day one: ECB-plus-ten penalties running without reminder, forty euros per invoice, court-dated interest, supplementary costs with receipts. Calendar the three dates that decide everything: one month for opposition, three months to serve the order, five years before the claim prescribes. Then let the commissaire de justice convert the enforceable title into a bank seizure while you run your business from wherever you live. Creditors who move in this order recover; creditors who wait for politeness fund their debtors.