You're about to sign with a French company: a new supplier, a large customer, a subcontractor, a partner. The commercial terms have had all the attention. The question of who exactly you're signing with often gets five minutes at the end. This guide turns those five minutes into a short, repeatable check built on official, free French sources, and shows which parts a register can answer and which parts it can't.
Every rule and threshold below comes from Légifrance, service-public.fr and INSEE, read on 9 October 2026.
What you'll learn
- The seven checks worth running before you sign
- Which official source answers each one
- The legal vigilance duty for contracts of €5,000 or more
- What the register can't tell you
- How to keep a record of what you checked, and when
Why check before signing?
Most problems with a counterparty don't come from fraud. They come from small mismatches: the contract names a trading name instead of the legal entity, the SIREN on the purchase order belongs to a sister company, the company ceased months ago and a new one took over the business, or the person who signs has no power to commit the company. Each of these is cheap to spot before signing and expensive to untangle afterwards, when an invoice goes unpaid or a delivery never comes.
A register check doesn't tell you whether a company is a good partner. It tells you whether the company you think you're dealing with exists, under which name and form, at which address, and in which state. That's the foundation every other judgement rests on.
The seven checks
1. Get the SIREN, and make sure it's valid
Ask your counterparty for their SIREN (nine digits) in writing, ideally on a document they produced: a quote, an invoice, their terms of sale. Don't copy it from a website or a search result.
According to INSEE, the ninth digit of a SIREN is a check digit computed with the Luhn algorithm. A mistyped or invented number fails that check about nine times out of ten. The code to check it is in our guide to SIREN, SIRET and VAT formats.
2. Confirm the company exists and is active
Look the SIREN up in the Annuaire des Entreprises, the State's free company directory, built on INSEE's Sirene directory and other official data. The Sirene status of a legal unit is either active or ceased, with a date. A ceased company can't sign a new contract: if the number you were given is ceased, ask why. Often the business moved to a new company with a new SIREN.
Remember the two levels: the company (SIREN) and each of its sites (SIRET). A closed site isn't a ceased company. See how to check whether a French company is still active.
3. Compare the legal name and form with the contract
The contract should name the legal entity exactly as registered: its legal name (dénomination), its legal form (SAS, SARL, SA…) and its SIREN. A trading name (nom commercial or enseigne) isn't enough on its own. The legal form also tells you how liability works: in an SAS or SARL, the partners' liability is generally limited to their contributions, while an individual entrepreneur (EI) contracts in their own name. See French legal forms explained.
4. Check the registered office
Compare the registered office (siège) in the register with the address on the contract and on invoices. A difference isn't always a problem, since companies move and invoices can come from a site, but it's worth a question. A registered office at a domiciliation company is legal and common, and it means the address tells you little about where the business operates.
5. Check who signs
The person who signs must be able to commit the company: its legal representative (for example the président of an SAS or the gérant of a SARL), or someone holding a written delegation. The national company register (RNE, kept by INPI) lists the officers declared for the company. If the signatory isn't listed, ask for the delegation of authority. Don't rely on a job title in an email signature.
6. Look for collective proceedings and recent changes
The BODACC, the official bulletin of civil and commercial announcements, publishes the acts registered in the trade and companies register: registrations, changes, removals, sales of businesses, collective proceedings and notices of filed accounts, according to service-public.fr. A company in safeguard, receivership or liquidation can still exist and still be "active" in Sirene. If you're about to pay a large deposit or depend on a single supplier, read its recent BODACC announcements.
7. For subcontracting of €5,000 or more: the vigilance duty
French labour law sets a specific duty here. Under article R8222-1 of the Labour Code, the checks against undeclared work are mandatory for any contract of at least €5,000 excluding tax. According to service-public.fr, the client must obtain from its contractor:
- An Urssaf attestation de vigilance (proof that the contractor is up to date with its social declarations), when the contract is signed and then every six months until the work ends, and must check that it's authentic.
- Proof of registration, such as a Kbis extract or an RNE extract, where the contractor must be registered.
Service-public.fr states that a client who fails to do this can be held jointly liable for the contractor's taxes and contributions if the contractor uses undeclared work. This is the one check on this list that is a legal duty rather than good practice, and it's the one most often forgotten after the first six months.
A checklist you can reuse
| Check | Official source | What you keep |
|---|---|---|
| SIREN valid | Check digit (INSEE) | The number and where it came from |
| Company active | Sirene, via the Annuaire des Entreprises | Status, its date, the date you checked |
| Legal name and form | Sirene, RNE | Name and form as registered |
| Registered office | Sirene, RNE | Address as registered |
| Signatory | RNE | Role, or the delegation |
| Proceedings, changes | BODACC | Announcements read, with dates |
| Vigilance (≥ €5,000) | Urssaf | Attestation, renewed every six months |
The last column matters as much as the first. A check you can't prove later is a check you'll have to redo. Write down what you saw, in which source, and on which date.
What the register can't tell you
A register describes a company's legal identity and life events. It doesn't tell you:
- Whether the company will pay you. Financial health needs other sources, and the register is not a rating.
- Whether the person you're talking to really works there. Confirm through a contact you found yourself, not one given in the same email.
- Whether the bank account on an invoice belongs to the company. Payment-detail fraud targets exactly this gap: confirm any new or changed bank details by phone, using a number you already had.
Being clear about these limits keeps the register check honest: it's necessary, not sufficient.
Doing it at scale
Checking one counterparty by hand takes a few minutes. Checking every new supplier or customer, and checking them again before each renewal, is where teams fall behind. Most of the identity checks above (number, status, name, form, address) are the same lookup every time, and they're the part worth automating, with the source and the date kept next to each answer. See how to automate merchant onboarding with a register check for the pattern.
Fuentio's API will return, for a SIREN, the status with its date, the legal name and form, the registered office, the source and the date it was checked. It isn't open yet: join the waitlist below to hear the day it opens.
See what we cover in France and Spain.
Limits. The thresholds and duties cited come from Légifrance (article R8222-1 of the Labour Code) and service-public.fr, read on 9 October 2026; they can change, so check the official source. A register check confirms a company's identity and status; it doesn't assess its solvency or replace advice. Not legal or tax advice.
Frequently asked questions
Is a Kbis extract enough to check a French company?
It proves registration at a date. It doesn't show later changes, and it says nothing about collective proceedings published since. Check the current status and the BODACC as well. See Kbis, Sirene notice and RNE extract.
Does the €5,000 vigilance duty apply to every contract?
It applies to contracts for work or services of at least €5,000 excluding tax, under article R8222-1 of the Labour Code. Service-public.fr lists the documents.
Can an active company be in liquidation?
Yes. A company in collective proceedings can remain active in Sirene until it's closed. The BODACC publishes the proceedings.
How often should I check again?
At least before each renewal, and every six months for the vigilance attestation when that duty applies.
Sources
- Légifrance, article R8222-1 of the Labour Code (read on 9 October 2026): legifrance.gouv.fr
- Service-public.fr, using subcontracting: the client's vigilance duty (page checked on 27 June 2026, read on 9 October 2026): entreprendre.service-public.gouv.fr
- Service-public.fr, consulting the BODACC (page checked on 2 October 2026): entreprendre.service-public.gouv.fr
- INSEE, definition of the SIREN number: insee.fr
- Annuaire des Entreprises: annuaire-entreprises.data.gouv.fr