How to find company information in France

You may access company information on various websites.

The official company website in France is called Infogreffe (https://www.infogreffe.com/) and has an English version as regards its search system (all documents are in French). It contains information and documents on companies provided by the Trade and Companies Registries of most French commercial courts.

There are various other websites with company information:

• L’Annuaire des entreprises (https://annuaire-entreprises.data.gouv.fr/) (website only in French);
• DataINPI (https://data.inpi.fr/) (website only in French);
• Pappers (https://www.pappers.fr/) (website only in French);
• Societe.com (https://www.societe.com/) (website only in French).
  

On Infogreffe you have free access to general information on companies (identity, date of registration, registration numbers and activity code (SIREN, SIRET, APE), legal form, beneficial owners, managers, statutory auditors, establishments in activity), turnover, number of employees and results (if accounts filed and public), a list of company documents and accounts filed and available. You can set up (for €4.20) on Infogreffe a tracker for a company if you want to be informed when there are any changes made to the Trade and Companies Registry regarding the company or if documents are filed.

On INPI you can access even more company information (all of the above + share capital, duration, tax-year end, information on legal representatives (or mandatory bodies) and statutory auditors, establishments and its main activity.

On Pappers (and Société.com) you can access even more company information (all of the above + share capital, tax-year end, information on legal representatives (or mandatory bodies) and statutory auditors, establishments (in activity or closed down), the VAT number of a company, its main activity, and the applicable collective bargaining agreement. However, there are sometimes errors, so it useful to double-check some of the main information on the official website Infogreffe. Pappers provides useful financial information, as well as organisational charts that link companies with identical legal representatives or shareholders.

On Infogreffe you have access to the binding “Certificate of registration” (Extrait Kbis) of a French company or branch office (no other websites provide such a binding certificate for the moment). The Certificate of registration is only a picture of a company on its date of issuance (since the company can be in the course of filing changes that will appear soon after). However, no changes are enforceable against third parties until they are published through Infogreffe. It is thus essential to have a very recent Certificate of registration when any binding effect is needed.

You can also order on Infogreffe a certificate of insolvency proceedings, a status of pledges and inscriptions on the business and certain assets, a history of the corporate changes made to the company, and generally most of the documents filed with the Trade and Companies Registry (annual and consolidated accounts, Articles of Association, mandatorily published shareholder resolutions, auditor reports, documentation linked to mergers, wind-ups, share contributions, etc.). All such company documents are subject to a fee (e.g., a Certificate of registration: €3.37; other corporate documents such as Articles of Association, shareholder minutes, reports: €10.05; a bankruptcy certificate: €4.73; a full status of pledges and inscriptions on the business and certain of its assets: €85.35).

Legal representatives of companies (but only them) can, after creating an account, order the equivalent of a Certificate of registration of their company (free of charge) on the website "MonIdenum": https://monidenum.fr/ (website in French only).

On INPI you can download free of charge all (or most of) the company documents and accounts filed with Infogreffe, so this is an extremely useful way to get free corporate documents in France.

On Pappers, you can also download free of charge all (or most of) the company documents and accounts filed with Infogreffe, so this is an extremely useful way to get free corporate documents in France (however, since it is not the official channel of information, it is always useful to double-check on Infogreffe to see e.g. whether the latest Articles of Association published on Pappers are of the same date as those published on Infogreffe).

Société.com also provides company documents but these are not free of charge.

You can find free information regarding trademarks, brands, patents, designs and geographical indications on the website of the French IP Institute (“INPI”): https://www.inpi.fr/base-marques, which also has an English version.

You can search for entries of pledges on assets without repossession over a company’s assets on Infogreffe: https://suretesmobilieres.fr/rechercheParSiren.

Regarding real estate owned by companies, you need to have the cadastral references of the asset, before being able to request copies of documents directly to the Land Registry having jurisdiction, which is why it is generally easier to ask a notary (since they have access to the best search engines).

It is possible to obtain status information on pending commercial litigation on Infogreffe (https://www.infogreffe.fr/services/consulter-une-affaire) but only on the French version of the website for the moment. If you have created an account on Infogreffe (anyone can), you can access the status of pending commercial litigation if you know (i) before which court the litigation is judged and (ii) the names of both the defendant and the plaintiff, or the docket number of the case.

For non-commercial litigation, there is no public access to information on pending litigation. You need to ask a French lawyer to access status information on pending non-commercial litigation, but only if you know (i) before which court the litigation is judged and (ii) the names of both the defendant and the plaintiff, or the docket number of the case.