Declaration of beneficial owners of the business

Verified 01 January 2026 - Entreprendre Public Service / Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

When registering a business, it must indicate the natural person or persons who own or control a business: beneficial owners. All information concerning these beneficial owners is centralized in the register of beneficial owners (RBE). Access to this information is now restricted to certain persons or authorities.

The beneficial owner (BE) is natural person, partner or shareholder, which fulfills one of the following conditions:

  • It holds, directly or indirectly, more than 25% voting rights or capital of the business.
  • It exercises a power of control over the latter by any other means (for example: may appoint or dismiss a majority of the members of the management bodies).

If one of these conditions is not met, the beneficial owner is the legal representative of the business (manager, president, etc.). Where the legal representative of the business is a legal person, the beneficial owner shall be the natural person or persons legally representing that business.

Infogreffe provides a scheme to facilitate the identification of beneficial owners.

The entities covered by this declaration are:

  • Businesses commercial (SARL, SA, SAS, etc.) and businesses civil (ICS, SEL, etc.) having their head office in France
  • Economic Interest Groupings (EIGs) headquartered in France
  • Commercial businesses whose registered office is located abroad and with an establishment in France
  • Other entities subject to the obligation to register in RCS: titleContent and at RNE: titleContent (collective investment undertaking, endowment funds, etc.).

The identity of the beneficial owners of a business must be indicated at the time of registration. In the event of a change of beneficial ownership (e.g. change of address), an application for an amended registration must be submitted to the company formalities office.

Registration of the business

Beneficial owners must be declared at the time of registration of the business.

They must be indicated under the heading “beneficial ownership” by clicking on “add beneficial ownership”.

The type of control exercised for each beneficial owner should be specified. If the control is the “holding of more than 25% of the capital” or the “holding of 25% of the voting right”, the percentage of capital and/or the percentage of voting right held will have to be specified.

Window of company formalities

Warning  

The fees for company formalities (registration, modification, cancelation of company, declaration of beneficial ownership) are set by the order of 28 February 2024. They apply until February 28, 2026, subject to the publication of a new order by that date.

In case of publication of a new order amending these tariffs, this sheet will be updated.

This approach is profitable, it costs about €23.

When declaring registration, the following information shall be provided:

  • Concerning the business :
    • Name or business name
    • Legal form
    • Address of the registered office
    • Possibly, the unique identification number.
  • Concerning each beneficial owner :
    • Last name, usage name, pseudonym, first names
    • Date and place of birth
    • Nationality
    • Personal address
    • Nature and manner of control over the business and extent of such control
    • The date on which he became the beneficial owner of the business.
Application for Modified Registration

One request for amending registration must be made as soon as a change occurs in the beneficial owners: change of address after a move, change of usage name following a marriage, arrival of a new beneficiary, etc.

This request for an amended registration must be made within 30 days of this change.

The request must be made by the agent business (for example, the manager) online on the website of the company formalities desk.

Window of company formalities

This approach is profitable, it costs about €45.

The following information shall be provided:

  • Concerning the business :
    • Name or business name
    • Legal form
    • Address of the registered office
    • Possibly, the unique identification number.
  • Concerning each beneficial owner :
    • Last name, usage name, pseudonym, first names
    • Date and place of birth, nationality
    • Personal address
    • Nature and manner of control over the business and extent of such control
    • The date on which he became the beneficial owner of the business.

The consultation of the beneficial ownership register (RBE) is no longer open to the general public.

In order to determine the identity of the beneficial owners of a business, it is now necessary to prove a legitimate interest in combating money laundering or the financing of terrorism.

Some supervisory authorities (judicial authorities, public finance officers, police and gendarmerie, etc.) may have full access to the beneficial ownership register as part of their mission.

Limited access for persons with a legitimate interest

Persons or entities with a ‘legitimate interest’ in the fight against money laundering may access the beneficial ownership register.

The list of such persons and entities shall be specified by law. It cites in particular:

  • Natural or legal persons in a business relationship with a business, where there is a risk to financial transparency. In this case, it is possible to obtain the information for the beneficial owners of this business.
  • Businesses and their managers bound by obligations to combat corruption or influence peddling
  • Subcontractors of persons required to exercise due diligence in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (banks, notaries, lawyers, insurers, etc.)
  • Members of Parliament
  • Journalists
  • Non-profit organizations
  • University researchers
  • Purchasers and licensing authorities for beneficial owners of tenderers
  • State or local authorities and their public institutions, mixed economy businesses (MES), national audit authority for European funds (as regards beneficial ownership)

The information to be consulted is limited to the following: surname, usage name, pseudonym, forenames, month, year of birth, country of residence and nationality of the beneficial owners and nature and extent of the interests they hold in the business.

The contents of the register shall remain confidential. The identity of the beneficial owners cannot therefore be disclosed to third parties (i.e. outside persons). Nevertheless, journalists, academic researchers or non-profit organizations are allowed to do so when third parties have an interest in knowing this information.

Conditions for access to the Beneficial Ownership Register (RBE)

Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Dila) - Prime Minister

Pour en savoir plus

Full access for certain persons and authorities

Some entities may have access to full beneficial ownership information. Thus, in addition to information on civil status, they can know in particular the personal addresses, and the way in which control over the business is exercised.

The list of these persons and authorities is specified by law:

  • Persons required to exercise due diligence in the fight against money laundering (e.g. accountant or lawyer)
  • Judicial authorities
  • Officers of the Customs Administration
  • Public finance officers
  • Police or the national gendarmerie in the context of a judicial investigation
  • French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA)
  • Officers of the Treasury Board Branch
  • High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP)
  • European Public Prosecutor's Office
  • Court of Auditors and Regional and Territorial Chambers of Auditors
  • European Anti-Fraud Office
  • Control officers of the labor inspectorate and control officers of social security bodies
  • European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) and the European Union Agency for Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters (Eurojust)
  • European Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism Authority.

FYI  

Where a natural person has been declared the beneficial owner of a business, he or she may have access to all the information in the register of beneficial owners concerning this business.

The company wishing to consult the register of beneficial owners (RBE) can contact either the Inpi or the registry of the commercial court.

The request for access to the RBE information is free of charge.

Répondez aux questions successives et les réponses s’afficheront automatiquement

Request for access to the RBE at the Inpi via the one-stop shop

To access the RBE, you must follow the following steps:

  • Upload, complete and sign a Beneficial Owner Data Access Request Form

Request for access to the beneficial ownership register (RBE) at the Inpi

The Inpi examines the request for access to the beneficial ownership register on the basis of the information provided and the supporting documents provided. It accepts or rejects the access request.

Request for access to the RBE at the Registry of the Commercial Court

To make the access request, you must follow the following steps:

  • Complete and sign the access request form
  • Provide a supporting document which varies depending on the person requesting access (mentioned in the access request form)

Warning  

Since 15 June 2025, companies that do not report or regularize information on their beneficial owners may be automatically deregistered from the RCS: titleContent by the Registrar of the Commercial Court.

Where the information on beneficial ownership has not been declared or is false or incomplete, the Registrar of the Commercial Court may send a letter to the formal notice to the business to ask it to regularize the situation. This regularization must take place within 3 months of this formal notice. If this is not the case, the Clerk may automatically strike the business from the CHR.

Similarly, the president of the tribunal businesses who fail to regularize beneficial ownership information may automatically be removed from the SCR within 3 months of their order.

The Registrar of the Commercial Court informs the public prosecutor's office of the automatic removal from the business. The latter can then be prosecuted criminally.

The legal representative of the business (or the person responsible for carrying out the registration formalities) is liable to a fine of €7,500 and six months in prison. He also faces a penalty of prohibition from managing (maximum 15 years) and partial deprivation of his civil rights and civic.

Please note

The beneficial owner himself refusing to provide the information necessary for his declaration also exposes him to a ban on management and a partial deprivation of his civil and civil rights.

The business in such a case, the applicant shall be liable to a fine not exceeding €37,500. It may also be sentenced to one or more of the following additional penalties:

  • Dissolution of the business
  • Placement under judicial supervision for a maximum of 5 years
  • Permanent closure or for a maximum of 5 years, of one, several or all the establishments of the business
  • Exclusion from public contracts definitively or for a maximum period of 5 years
  • Permanent ban or for a maximum of 5 years to make an offer to the public of financial securities or to go public
  • Prohibition for up to 5 years to issue checks to those who are certified or to use payment cards 
  • Posting of the pronounced decision or dissemination of it in the written press.