French-speaking collectors and avocats recover your B2B invoices under French law — from mise en demeure to injonction de payer and enforcement. First results typically within 20 days. You pay only when money moves.
Madame, Monsieur, nous représentons votre créancier. Malgré relances, la somme visée en objet demeure impayée à ce jour.
Par la présente, nous vous mettons en demeure de régler l'intégralité de cette somme, majorée des pénalités de retard et de l'indemnité forfaitaire de recouvrement de 40 € par facture prévues à l'article L441-10 du Code de commerce, sous huit jours à compter de la réception de la présente.
À défaut de paiement ou de proposition écrite acceptable dans ce délai, nous avons instruction de solliciter, sans nouvel avis, une ordonnance d'injonction de payer devant le tribunal de commerce compétent, et d'en poursuivre l'exécution par commissaire de justice. Les frais en résultant seront mis à votre charge.
This is what your French debtor receives — in French, under French law. A mise en demeure citing Article L441-10 and announcing an injonction de payer reads very differently in Lyon than a polite English reminder from overseas. Hover the black bars — that is where your debtor's name goes.
French debt recovery runs on a fixed escalation ladder, and every French finance director — every DAF — knows the cost of each rung. Tap a stage — see what the debtor receives, what it costs them, and what the law hands you next.
« Nous vous mettons en demeure de régler la somme de ██ ███ €, majorée des pénalités de retard, sous huit jours… »
« DAF joint. Protocole proposé : ██ % immédiat, solde sous 14 jours. Dossier prêt pour dépôt au greffe si refus. »
« Ordonnance portant injonction de payer la somme de ███ ███ € en principal, outre intérêts et frais — rendue sur pièces, sans audience… »
« En conséquence, la République française mande et ordonne à tous commissaires de justice, sur ce requis, de mettre ladite décision à exécution… »
« Saisie-attribution signifiée auprès de la ██████ Banque. Fonds bloqués à hauteur de la créance. Procès-verbal notifié au débiteur. »
Cosmodca runs this ladder for overseas creditors every day — a debt collection agency for France that serves, files, and enforces locally while you follow the case in one dashboard. For the procedural deep-dive, see our creditor's guide to French debt collection; debtor elsewhere, the international debt collection agency desk or Germany desk.
Creditors in the US, UK, Canada, and beyond place French cases with one desk — collectors and avocats on the ground since 1999, one dashboard in your language.
The latest verified figures on French payment behavior and business failures — and why the clock matters:
Sources: Banque de France, Business failures, December 2025 · Atradius Payment Practices Barometer, France 2026 · US Census Bureau, Trade in Goods with France
Debt collection in France is the recovery of overdue invoices from French businesses on behalf of the creditor — formal demands under French law, negotiation in French, and escalation from mise en demeure through the injonction de payer to enforcement by commissaire de justice. For an overseas creditor, a debt collection agency for France runs the entire ladder locally while you keep one contact.
Your case reaches a French collector the same day. The debtor's Kbis extract is pulled from the commercial register before first contact.
Live entity, registered address, filings, and — critically — any procédure collective already opened, checked against French registers.
Calls and a mise en demeure citing Art. L441-10 — penalties and the €40 per-invoice indemnity already attached. Most cases settle here.
Filed at the tribunal de commerce for roughly €35 — decided on the documents. The debtor has one month to oppose.
No opposition and the order carries the formule exécutoire — the state's instruction to enforce, valid ten years.
Commissaire de justice, saisie-attribution on the bank — then funds transferred with a full report. No recovery, no fee.
Three models cover nearly every French commercial case. The percentage depends on claim age, size, and complexity. Court and enforcement costs are quoted and approved by you before any filing — and French law puts late-payment penalties and recovery costs on the debtor's side of the ledger.
A flat-fee French demand sequence under your name — relance and mise en demeure with Art. L441-10 penalties attached. Escalates only if the debtor stays silent.
A success fee on the amount actually recovered. Nothing upfront. Nothing on failure. The economics only work when you get paid.
Injonction de payer, litigation, and enforcement through avocats and commissaires de justice. For urgency, the fast debt collection service; for contested claims, attorney-based debt collection from day one.
A French company ignoring an overseas invoice has usually made a simple calculation: you are far away, French procedure is unfamiliar to you, and English emails can be left unanswered indefinitely. What changes the calculation is a mise en demeure in correct legal French, penalties and the €40 indemnity already itemized, and an injonction de payer file visibly ready for the greffe. Specialist B2B debt collection puts that machinery behind your receivable on a success-fee basis, with industry desks for manufacturing, wine & food, logistics, luxury, and technology.
French debt collection follows a fixed escalation: a mise en demeure (formal notice) puts the debtor on notice with late-payment penalties attached, a collection agency negotiates in French at finance-director level, and unresolved documented claims move to the injonction de payer — a payment order decided on the documents, without a hearing, for roughly €35 in court fees. The resulting title is enforced by a commissaire de justice, most effectively through bank attachment.
Only briefly. Ignoring the mise en demeure leads to an injonction de payer application, and ignoring the served order for one month makes it enforceable — a titre exécutoire valid for ten years, executed by a commissaire de justice against the debtor's bank accounts and assets. Silence in the French system does not make a claim go away; it removes the debtor's defenses.
On the contingency model, nothing upfront: the success fee is a percentage of the amount actually recovered, quoted in writing before you place the case. French law also works in your favor — Article L441-10 of the Commercial Code entitles you to late-payment penalties plus a fixed €40 recovery indemnity per invoice, charged to the debtor, which routinely offsets part of the fee.
Commercial claims in France are generally time-barred five years after the debt fell due. A titre exécutoire obtained before that deadline remains enforceable for ten years. But the practical window is far shorter than the legal one — recoverability collapses as debtors restructure or enter collective proceedings, so the real deadline is measured in months.
Yes — and you do not need to sue at home first. For most unpaid invoices it is faster to pursue the claim directly in France through a mise en demeure and, if needed, an injonction de payer, than to obtain a judgment abroad and have it recognized. EU creditors can also use the European Order for Payment; UK and US creditors proceed under French national procedure through our avocats.
The mise en demeure is France's formal notice of default — the letter that officially demands payment, fixes a deadline, and documents the debtor's default for everything that follows. In practice it is the required first rung of the ladder: courts expect it, penalties and the €40 indemnity attach from it, and a properly drafted one in legal French settles a substantial share of cases on its own.
The longer read for creditors doing their homework: how French recovery actually runs, the injonction de payer in detail, what French law already owes you, who the commissaire de justice is, and when placing a case is the wrong move. Open what matters.
A debt collection agency working France for an overseas creditor does four things you cannot efficiently do from abroad. It verifies the debtor against French registers — the Kbis extract, the registered office, the corporate form, and any collective proceedings already opened, which change everything. It applies pressure inside the debtor's own system: a mise en demeure in correct legal French with Article L441-10 penalties itemized, collector calls at DAF level, and a litigation file visibly prepared. It escalates through the injonction de payer — France's fast-track order for documented debts. And it enforces through commissaires de justice: bank attachment, asset seizure, receivables interception.
The alternative is instructing a French law firm directly at hourly rates and coordinating procedure in a language you don't work in. A specialist debt collection agency for France runs the same ladder on a success-fee basis, and you deal with one contact and one dashboard.
The injonction de payer is the reason documented claims in France rarely need full litigation. The application goes to the tribunal de commerce with the contract, invoices, and proof of the mise en demeure; the court decides on the papers — no hearing, no appearance — for a filing cost of roughly €35. The order is then served on the debtor by a commissaire de justice, opening a one-month window to oppose. Silence makes the order enforceable: the formule exécutoire is affixed, and the creditor holds a titre exécutoire valid for ten years.
An opposition transfers the case to ordinary proceedings, but in commercial practice most oppositions are negotiating positions rather than defenses. For claims under €5,000, an officer-led simplified recovery procedure can skip the court stage entirely; for EU-based creditors, the European Order for Payment offers a parallel route. Our avocats pick whichever instrument is faster for the specific debtor and tribunal.
Overseas creditors regularly under-claim in France. On late commercial invoices, Article L441-10 of the Code de commerce entitles you — by statute, not negotiation — to late-payment penalties at the rate stated in your terms (with a statutory floor) and to a fixed €40 recovery indemnity per late invoice, no proof of loss required, implementing Directive 2011/7/EU. Where actual recovery costs exceed the €40, the additional amount can be claimed on evidence. Across an aging ledger these entitlements routinely offset part or all of a success fee — which changes the economics of acting versus waiting.
And waiting has both a soft cost and a hard deadline: industry data puts the recoverable share of a receivable near 94 percent at 30 days past due and below 30 percent past a year, while French commercial claims are time-barred at five years. The expensive option is not the agency; it is the aging report.
Since 2022 the historic huissier de justice and the commissaire-priseur judiciaire have been merged into a single profession: the commissaire de justice. For a creditor, this officer is the sharp end of French recovery — the one who formally serves the injonction de payer, and who executes the title once it becomes enforceable. The most effective instrument is the saisie-attribution: the officer serves the debtor's bank, funds up to the claim are frozen at the moment of service, and the debtor finds out afterward. Asset seizure and interception of the debtor's own receivables complete the toolkit.
Two facts worth knowing: the titre exécutoire remains enforceable for ten years, so a debtor who is briefly insolvent can be pursued when fortunes recover; and for small claims under €5,000, the commissaire can run a simplified recovery procedure without any court stage at all — fast, cheap, and surprisingly little known outside France.
Candor is cheaper than a wasted mandate. If your debtor is in a procédure collective — sauvegarde, redressement, or liquidation judiciaire — individual collection is stayed and the file belongs with counsel declaring your claim in the proceedings, on a strict deadline of two months from publication for foreign creditors' attention: miss it and the claim can be lost entirely. If the debtor substantively disputes what you delivered, the case is litigation, not collection. And if the claim is past the five-year limitation, no collector revives it.
Everything else — the silent SARL, the debtor who “never received” the invoice, the company betting an overseas creditor won't act in France — is exactly what this desk exists for. The assessment costs nothing and tells you which category your case is in. Debtors elsewhere belong with the international debt collection agency desk or the global coverage hub.
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