A foreign company that wants to test the French market does not always need to incorporate a French subsidiary or register a full commercial branch on day one. A liaison office, also called a representative office, can provide a local presence for market research, product information, meetings and preparation. It is not a French company, it has no separate legal personality and it is not meant to invoice French customers or sign sales contracts.<\/p>\n
That simplicity has a strict limit. The legal label \u201cliaison office\u201d does not protect a group whose French team negotiates the essential terms of contracts, accepts orders, provides services, stores stock for delivery or habitually binds the foreign head office. Those facts can create a French establishment, a French tax presence or an obligation to register a different form of business. The consequences may include corporation tax, value added tax, accounting records, employer obligations and a dispute over where the company\u2019s commercial activity is actually carried on.<\/p>\n
This guide answers the practical questions a foreign founder or general counsel should resolve before renting premises or hiring a French representative: what the office may do, which filings produce a SIREN or SIRET number, when a Kbis or RCS registration is needed, how the first employee changes the analysis, and when a branch or subsidiary is safer. It also gives a documented way to assess permanent-establishment risk and request a French tax ruling before the model is launched.<\/p>\n
For the wider incorporation and corporate-structuring context, see the firm\u2019s French company formation and corporate structuring guidance<\/a>. This article focuses on the narrower decision between a liaison office, a branch and a subsidiary.<\/p>\n A liaison office is a local extension of the foreign company, not a new legal person. It normally has no share capital, no separate corporate assets and no independent authority to contract. The foreign head office remains the party that sells, invoices, supplies, warranties and bears the commercial liability. The office is useful when the business wants information before it commits to a permanent operating structure.<\/p>\n The permitted work is usually described as preparatory or auxiliary. In practical terms, the office may:<\/p>\n The Ministry of Economy\u2019s guide to implanting a foreign company in France<\/a> describes the liaison office as a structure for non-commercial activities such as prospecting, advertising, information and other preparatory or auxiliary work. Current CCI Paris \u00cele-de-France guidance, updated on 25 June 2026, gives the same practical orientation: the office can explore the market and conduct negotiations, but the foreign company must sign the commercial contract and handle the order.<\/p>\n The distinction is functional rather than cosmetic. A slide deck, email, business card or website may describe the local presence as a \u201cbureau de liaison\u201d, but the administration and a court will look at what the people in France actually do. A French representative may explain a product and pass a customer\u2019s requirements to the head office. The representative should not accept the order, confirm the price, promise delivery, issue the invoice or make a binding commitment on behalf of the parent.<\/p>\n The public registration rules also distinguish an operating establishment from a foreign company that has no French permanent establishment. Article L. 123-1 of the French Commercial Code<\/a> provides, in the official wording, \u00ab Les soci\u00e9t\u00e9s commerciales dont le si\u00e8ge est situ\u00e9 hors d’un d\u00e9partement fran\u00e7ais et qui ont un \u00e9tablissement dans l’un de ces d\u00e9partements \u00bb. That provision is the starting point for a foreign company that has crossed the line into a French establishment subject to the commercial register. It should not be used to assume that every low-intensity liaison office must automatically have a French subsidiary.<\/p>\nI. Can a foreign company open a liaison office in France without a subsidiary?<\/h2>\n
A. What can a French liaison office do before it becomes commercial?<\/h3>\n
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