Fax and the Commercial Court Registry: Filing It Right

Short answer: at the commercial court registry, a fax never counts as a filing. Formalities for the French Trade and Companies Register (RCS) — registration, amendment, striking off, filing of annual accounts, registration of liens and pledges — have since 2023 gone through the one-stop electronic business formalities portal run by the INPI, or through Infogreffe's online services where the registry offers them, and for certain documents through a paper filing against a receipt. None of these channels accepts a fax machine as a means of submission. Fax does, however, remain useful around the filing: chasing a registry that publishes only a phone number for its formalities department, sending a missing document requested by a clerk, confirming a correction before a pending file is closed, flagging an urgent matter in insolvency proceedings on a Friday evening. The rule to remember: the one-stop portal files, the fax unblocks. Confusing the two means risking a one-month deadline that cannot be recovered.

Why the registry is a special case

A commercial court registry is not just another administrative body. It is a public officer — since the Act of 18 November 2016, the registrar is a self-employed professional holding an office — who maintains a register whose entries are enforceable against third parties. When the registry records a change of managing director in the RCS, that entry produces legal effects towards everyone, including those who never learned of it.

The force attached to the register comes with a counterpart: the registrar checks the formal validity of everything they are asked to record. They verify that the form is signed by an authorised person, that the supporting documents are complete, that the deed produced matches the entry requested. A registrar who recorded an entry on the basis of an unauthenticated fax would incur personal liability.

That is precisely why fax disappeared from the filing channels. It is not a question of modernity: it is a question of attributability. A fax carries no verifiable signature, no checked identity, no guarantee of integrity. It can serve as the beginning of proof of an exchange, as we explain in our analysis of the evidential value of a fax before a judge, but it cannot form the basis of an entry enforceable against third parties.

The real filing landscape since the one-stop portal reform

Since 1 January 2023, and after a transition period during which Infogreffe remained an official fallback, the architecture is as follows.

That last line is the one law firms care about. In day-to-day practice, one formality file in four comes back with a request for rectification: an unsigned proof of registered address, an illegible identity document, a date inconsistency between the minutes and the form. The registry clerk calls or writes, and the file stays "pending" — usually fifteen days, after which it is rejected and the fee is forfeited.

Within that window, speed matters more than form. Many registries agree to receive the missing document through the fastest channel, as a supplement to the electronic filing already recorded. Fax, where the registry publishes a number, offers a specific advantage here: it produces a time-stamped transmission report showing that you responded within the allotted period, even if the document then has to be formally regularised.

The deadlines that leave no margin

Company law runs on deadlines. Three sets of time limits deserve to be pinned to the wall of the legal department.

One month for amendments

Any change to the particulars entered in the RCS must be the subject of an amending entry within one month of the event: change of managing director, transfer of registered office, change of corporate objects, variation of capital. The clock starts on the date of the deed or decision, not the date the director discovered it. Missing the deadline does not void the change between shareholders, but it makes it unenforceable against third parties until the entry is made — and exposes you to a fine, or even to an injunction from the president of the court sitting in summary proceedings.

Seven months for annual accounts

Commercial companies must approve their accounts within six months of the financial year end, then file them with the registry within one month of approval (two months where filing is electronic). For a year ending 31 December, the usual cut-off is therefore 31 July, or 31 August for a paperless filing. Failure to file exposes you to a fine of 1,500 euros, doubled in the event of a repeat offence, and above all to an injunction with a penalty payment from the president of the court, a procedure that has become routine in several jurisdictions.

Fifteen days, thirty days, two months: security interests

Registrations of security interests follow their own, much shorter deadlines. The seller's lien on a business must be registered within thirty days of the sale; a pledge over a business within thirty days of the instrument creating it; the Treasury's lien and that of social security bodies follow their own rules. A single day's delay does not merely postpone the entry: it renders it ineffective, the creditor loses its ranking, and the drafter of the deed incurs liability.

For these deadlines, best practice is a matter of organisation rather than technology. An up-to-date deadline dashboard, a large-format erasable wall planner in the clerk's office, and double entry in the practice management software are worth more than any fallback channel. Fax does not recover a missed deadline: it only proves the time at which you acted.

What fax still does very well at the registry

Three use cases hold up, and they are not marginal.

The urgent missing document. The file is pending, the clerk has left a message, two days remain. The fax goes out in a few minutes from anywhere, with no account to create, no portal to track down. The transmission report states the number dialled, the date, the time, the number of pages. That is the record you will produce if the registry claims it received nothing.

Contact with departments that have not gone paperless. Some registry departments — insolvency proceedings, the register of movable security interests, the hearings department — have no public email address and publish only a switchboard number and a fax number. To report an event occurring between two hearings, to send a certificate to a supervisory judge, to support a request for an extension, fax remains the most direct route.

Immediate time-stamping of a transmission. Where a document must be "sent without delay" without any form being prescribed, the transmission report serves as certain proof of the date of dispatch. It is the same reasoning as that developed in our comparison of acknowledgements of receipt: fax, registered electronic mail or email — each channel proves something different, and you need to know which one you are using.

Putting together a file that clears on the first attempt

Most of the time lost at the registry comes not from the channel, but from the documentary quality of the file. Four points come up in almost every rejection.

Legibility of identity documents. Copies of passports or national identity cards scanned in haste, photographed at an angle, with glare, are the leading cause of rectification requests. A flatbed document scanner or a compact sheet-fed scanner produces crisp, straightened files the registry can work with — and which can incidentally be archived. Our advice on digitising documents without losing legal value applies in full here.

Consistency of dates. The general meeting minutes are dated the 12th, the form says the 15th, the restated articles bear the 20th. The clerk rejects the file. Cross-checking the three documents before filing costs ten minutes and saves fifteen days.

Signatures. A private deed filed with the registry must be signed by an authorised person, and the copy must show the signature clearly. Where a file circulates among several shareholders, a qualified electronic signature solution avoids postal back-and-forth and produces a file whose integrity can be verified.

Keeping the receipt. Every filing generates a receipt or an acknowledgement of registration. It is your only proof of having acted within the deadline. These documents should go into permanent filing: a lever arch file with dividers for paper originals, and a backup on an encrypted external hard drive for digital versions, kept for the period we set out in our guide to archiving fax transmission reports.

Insolvency proceedings: where fax saves the week

In distressed business litigation, deadlines are sometimes counted in working days. A declaration of suspension of payments must be made within forty-five days of the suspension of payments. Creditors have two months from publication of the opening judgment in the BODACC to file their claim with the court-appointed administrator. An employee checking the schedule of wage claims, a landlord wanting termination to be established, a supplier reclaiming unpaid goods: all of them work under date pressure.

Here, the administrator or the supervisory judge is the recipient, not the register. The form is often unprescribed, or expressly open to "any means allowing proof of dispatch". Fax falls into that category, and many insolvency practitioners' offices maintain one precisely for that purpose. Just remember to back up the transmission with a registered letter the same day: the fax gives you the time, the registered letter gives you receipt.

For professionals handling this kind of workflow daily, an up-to-date reference work on insolvency proceedings remains the firm's most profitable investment: deadlines and starting points change with every reform, and an outdated edition costs more than a new one.

Frequently asked questions

Can I file my annual accounts by fax with the registry?

No. Annual accounts are filed through Infogreffe's dedicated online service or by handing in paper copies to the commercial court registry for the place of the registered office. A fax transmission will not be recorded and will not exempt you from filing, nor from penalties for late filing.

Can the registry refuse a document received by fax?

Yes, and it will do so for any document intended to be entered in the register or annexed to an official filing. Fax is admitted, at best, as a supplementary transmission to unblock a pending file, leaving it to you to regularise matters in the proper form.

What is my fax transmission report worth if the registry disputes it?

It constitutes evidence of dispatch: it shows that a communication of n pages was established to a given number at a given time. It proves neither the content nor that it was read. Keep it together with an exact copy of the pages sent, so that the whole can be reconstructed if needed.

What should I do if I discover an undeclared change dating back more than a month?

File the formality with the one-stop portal immediately, stating the actual date of the deed. The delay can be regularised; unenforceability ceases upon registration. Never attempt to backdate minutes: forgery of a private document is a far more serious offence than a late-filing fine.

Can a judicial officer file on my behalf?

A judicial officer, a lawyer or a chartered accountant may act as agent on production of a power of attorney. This is often the safest choice for registrations of security interests, where the drafter's professional liability is at stake — see our article on judicial officers and formal notice deadlines.

In summary

• No RCS formality can be filed by fax: the INPI one-stop portal, Infogreffe's online services or a paper filing against a receipt are the only valid routes.
• Fax retains three genuine uses: the urgent missing document on a pending file, contact with registry departments that have not gone paperless, and immediate time-stamping of a transmission where no form is prescribed.
• The key deadlines: one month for an amending entry, one to two months after approval for annual accounts, thirty days for most registrations of security interests, two months for filing a claim in insolvency proceedings.
• A file is almost always rejected because of an illegible document, an inconsistent date or a missing signature — rarely over a question of channel.
• Always keep receipts and transmission reports: they are your proof of having acted within the deadline, long after the file has been closed.

To check coverage and usable numbers before sending, see our available countries page, and the FAQ for practical questions about transmission reports.