Bankruptcy in France: when and how to file, and what happens next

Déposer le bilan, literally ‘filing the balance sheet’, is the everyday term for declaring insolvency (cessation des paiements) and applying for receivership or judicial liquidation. The French Commercial Code speaks of an application filed at the registry (greffe) of the competent court by the company's legal representative or by the sole trader (Article R. 631-1). It covers companies, traders, craftspeople, farmers, the self-employed, liberal professions and associations (Articles L. 631-2 and L. 640-2). The filing does not decide what follows: the court opens receivership if the business can recover, liquidation if its rescue is manifestly impossible (Article L. 640-1). Personal bankruptcy (faillite personnelle) is something else: a sanction a court can impose on a director, not a procedure anyone files for (Article L. 653-2). A company that can still pay all its debts does not file: it can be wound up voluntarily.

Who files

The gérant, the président or the sole trader

Where

At the competent court's registry

No later than 45 days after the date of insolvency, unless conciliation was requested within that time (Articles L. 631-4 and L. 640-4 of the French Commercial Code). Insolvency means the business cannot pay its debts due with its available assets, taking into account any authorised overdraft still unused and payment terms granted by creditors (Article L. 631-1). The deadline runs from that date, which the court can set up to 18 months before its judgment (Article L. 631-8). Before insolvency, there is nothing to file in this sense: safeguard proceedings or conciliation are the routes available (Articles L. 620-1 and L. 611-4). A late filing is still admissible, but it exposes the director: disqualification for knowingly failing to apply within 45 days (Article L. 653-8), and liability for a shortfall of assets if the delay is held to be mismanagement (Article L. 651-2). The deadline is the same for a director who lives abroad.

Deadline

45 days at the latest

From

The date of insolvency

The application includes the annual accounts for the last financial year and the documents listed in Article R. 631-1 of the French Commercial Code, each dated, signed and certified true and accurate by the director. The main ones: the statement of debts due and available assets with the declaration of insolvency; a cash position less than a month old; the number of employees, with each one's name and address, and the turnover; a costed list of claims and debts, with the creditors' names and addresses; the statement of security interests and off-balance-sheet commitments; a summary inventory of the assets; and a sworn statement that there has been no mandat ad hoc or conciliation in the last 18 months. For a liquidation, the evidence that rescue is manifestly impossible is added (Article R. 640-1). An official form, in French, follows these headings. The table below lists each document.

Cash position

Less than a month old

Signature

Certified by the director

The filing goes to the registry of the court for the company's registered office, or for the business address declared by a sole trader (Article R. 600-1 of the French Commercial Code). The commercial court (tribunal de commerce) hears commercial and craft businesses, the civil court (tribunal judiciaire) the others, such as liberal professions or associations (Article L. 621-2). Since 1 January 2025, 12 economic activities courts (tribunaux des activités économiques), among them Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Nanterre, replace the commercial court on a trial basis and hear all businesses except the legal professions (Law no. 2023-1059, Article 26). If the registered office moved in the last six months, the former office's court alone has jurisdiction. Filing is done at the registry or, for commercial and economic activities courts, online through Infogreffe. A company registered abroad whose centre of main interests is in France comes under the French courts (Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2015/848). No lawyer is required.

Place

The court for the registered office

Online

Infogreffe, for commercial registries

The court summons the director, hears them in private, in chambers, then opens receivership or judicial liquidation (Article L. 621-1 of the French Commercial Code). The judgment sets the date of insolvency and appoints the officers of the proceedings: in receivership, a creditors' representative (mandataire judiciaire) and sometimes a receiver (administrateur judiciaire); in liquidation, a liquidator (liquidateur). From the judgment, creditors can no longer pursue the business for debts that arose before it, and those debts can no longer be paid, save exceptions (Articles L. 622-7 and L. 622-21). In receivership, trading continues during an observation period of 6 months, renewable (Article L. 621-3). In liquidation, it stops and the director no longer manages the assets (Article L. 641-9). The judgment is published in the BODACC; creditors, foreign ones included, then have 2 months to file their claims, plus 2 for those outside mainland France (Article R. 622-24). For a buyer, any sale now goes through the court.

Hearing

In chambers

Decision

Receivership or liquidation

The filing is the same for every form; what changes is what it means for the person behind the business. In an SARL (private limited company), EURL, SAS (simplified joint-stock company) or SASU, the company alone is liable for its debts: the gérant or président answers with personal assets only after giving a personal guarantee, being ordered to pay for mismanagement that contributed to a shortfall of assets (Article L. 651-2 of the French Commercial Code), or being personally sanctioned. Shareholders, French or foreign, risk only their contribution, unless they acted as de facto directors and face the same liability. A sole trader, micro-entrepreneur included, files in person; for debts arising since 15 May 2022, only the business assets are liable in principle (Article L. 526-22). With no employee in the last six months and assets worth less than €15,000, a sole trader can, under conditions, apply for professional recovery (rétablissement professionnel), without liquidation (Articles L. 645-1 and R. 645-1).

Company

Company debts, unless guarantee or fault

Sole trader

Business assets, in principle