WHAT DOCUMENTS CAN BE ORDERED ?

For each company, a number of documents can be ordered using various distribution methods.

Kbis (or Kbis certificate)

A Kbis certificate (legal entity) or K certificate (individual), which is issued by the Commercial Court Registry at the request of any person, contains all information on file at the Trade and Companies Registry (up-to-date at the time of issuance).

A virtual corporate identity card, a Kbis is the only official legal document that certifies the legal existence of a business enterprise. It also includes all decisions of the Commercial Court related to collective actions (contingency proceedings, court-supervised recovery and liquidations by order of Court). A Kbis provides information about the company’s business activity and the identity of the executive officers, directors and auditors.

For example, a Kbis indicates :

• the name of the registry with which the company is registered,
• company name, acronym and brand,
• identification number (formerly SIREN number),
• legal form (SARL - limited liability company, SA - corporation, GIE - economic interest group, SCI - trading company, etc.),
• currency and amount of share capital,
• address of head office,
• term of the company,
• date of creation,
• NAF code,
• detailed activity (description),
• address of the main office,
• position, last name, first name, date of birth, commune of birth, nationality and address of the Chief Executive Officer, directors and auditors.

This document is generally requested at the time of :

• an application to tender,
• opening of a bank account,
• purchases of business supplies from distributors.

In most cases, the Kbis requested must have been issued within the past three months.

NOTE : Only the official document ordered from the registry and issued and signed by the Registrar of the Commercial Court is considered authentic for all administrative procedures.

You can request a periodic mailing of an RCS certificate. Information about periodic mailings of RCS certificates.

Certificate from the special register of commercial agents

Ce document regroupe l'ensemble des mentions (à jour à l'instant de sa délivrance) portées au Registre Spécial des Agents Commerciaux tenu par les Greffes des Tribunaux de Commerce.

Certificate from the special register of EIRL

Ce document regroupe l'ensemble des mentions (à jour à l'instant de sa délivrance) portées au Registre Spécial des Entrepreneurs Individuels à Responsabilité Limitée tenu par les Greffes des Tribunaux de Commerce.

Debt report (Preferential Rights and Pledges)

General report of pledges (contractual guarantee by which a debtor delivers movable or immovable property to its creditor to secure its debt) and preferential rights (a right which the law grants to a creditor, based on the quality of its claim, to have a preferred payment position over other creditors on all or some of its debtor's assets) recorded by the Commercial Court Registry.

Debts owed to the government, guarantees declared by banks and financial institutions, preferential rights and pledges make up what is called the company's debt report :

• Treasury, social security and supplementary pension preferential rights represent the debts contracted by the company with these organizations.
• Contractual pledges are guarantees taken by certain suppliers of a company to protect themselves in case of the company's bankruptcy.

Debt reports may include the following entries :

• Treasury preferential rights,
• Social security and supplementary pension preferential rights,
• Disclosures of financial leasing agreements,
• Vendor's preferential rights and action for rescission,
• Disclosures of rental contracts,
• Disclosures of title retention clauses,
• Loans and extensions (in collective actions),
• Protests,
• Declarations of claims (in case of capital injections),
• Pledges of equipment and machinery,
• Pledges of shares of non-trading companies (partnership shares),
• Pledges of business assets, including those of small businesses.

History of amending entries in the RCS

All changes made to the company in the RCS : collective actions are not displayed in this history, but rather in the observations on the RCS certificate.

Orders of this product (except in view mode) require that the RCS certificate (package which includes the RCS certificate + history for email, mail and download orders) be ordered.

All information regarding pending judicial proceedings

The Loi de Sauvegarde des Entreprises (French safeguard of undertakings act) of 26 July 2005 established new judicial proceedings for companies, merchants, small businesses, professionals, farmers and private corporations.

• Contingency proceedings, for entities that are not in a state of suspension of payments but are experiencing difficulties which they are unable to overcome. This procedure allows them to draw up a plan, under court supervision, to pay off their debts.
• Court-supervised recovery, for entities that are in a state of suspension of payments and wish to stay in business, maintain jobs and pay off their debts.
• Liquidation by order of Court, for entities for which court-supervised recovery is clearly impossible. This procedure puts an end to the company's business and allows it to sell its assets in order to pay off its debts.

You can obtain a certificate verifying the existence or non-existence of these proceedings, along with copies of the resulting decisions.

The law requires that companies which cannot pay their current debts with their available assets file for bankruptcy at the Commercial Court Registry within 45 days of the date of suspension of payments unless a request is made during this period to open a conciliation proceeding.

It is important to stay up to the minute on changes in the proceeding in order to assert one's rights : date of judgment, name of the creditors' representative who must be notified of the claim, name of the official receiver or any other court-appointed representative, deadlines for presenting the claims, etc.

Annual financial statements

All corporations (SA), limited liability companies (SARL), general partnerships (SNC) whose partners are SARLs or SAs, and agricultural cooperatives or agricultural cooperative unions with revenue of more than 75,000 euros are required to file their annual financial statements in duplicate with the Commercial Court Registry of the place of their head office. These include the balance sheet, income statement and notes.

Three types of documents are available :

• simplified balance sheets or balance sheets entered by the INPI (National Office of Industrial Property),
• annual financial statements (digitized or not),
• certificate of non-filing in case the financial statements have not yet been filed.

These documents must be filed within one month of being approved by the Ordinary General Meeting (i.e. not more than seven months after the end date of the fiscal year). If they are not filed, the company in violation is subject to a fine.

The annual financial statements consist of the following :

• balance sheet (assets and liabilities),
• income statement (expenses and income),
• amortization schedule,
• fixed assets and provisions schedule,
• statement of claims and debts,
• management report,
• allocation of profit and the allocation decision,
• auditor's report for companies which have them, such as corporations.

The key figures are the essential information taken from the annual financial statements filed with the registries. You may consult the company's revenue to find out its business volume, net income and workforce during the previous fiscal years. This information can be viewed on each company's identity record made available on the www.infogreffe.fr website.

Company certificates and Memoranda of Association

The various legal obligations to which legal entities are bound and which must be filed with the registry. A company's Memoranda of Association are, in a manner of speaking, its "internal bylaws". They generally include the following points :

• general provisions (legal form, company name, head office, term, corporate purpose, etc.),
• share capital and stock (number and value of each share, terms for disposing of shares, etc.),
• the company's administration.

Three types of documents are available :

• Written instruments of incorporation of a company or association containing certain compulsory information which establishes the company's objectives and rules of operation.
• Amending certificates, by which the company's Memoranda of Association can be legally amended, transfer certificates, used to create or update the file, extension orders, to postpone the filing date of the annual financial statements, extension refusal orders, and certain amending certificates, such as the dissolution certificate, used to cancel the file.
• Latest up-to-date Memoranda of Association : instruments of incorporation updated after amending certificates have been filed.

Alert setup

Opportunity made available to Internet users to be notified of the occurrence of an event (such as the initiation of a recovery proceeding) or of a change at the Trade and Companies Registry of the registered person of their choice.

HOW DO I PURCHASE THEM ?

You can select the desired document by clicking on the document name : a panel is displayed containing the list of existing documents and available media.

You can select the desired documents and media: the price corresponding to your selection is then displayed on the right side of the page.

Note: for company certificates and Memoranda of Association, only up-to-date Memoranda of Association, instruments of incorporation and the most recent filing can be selected in the open panel. If other company certificates and Memoranda of Association are available, you can click on the "Other certificates filed" link to open a pop-up to select from all the company certificates and Memoranda of Association. Once your selection is made, click on the "Confirm" button to close the pop-up and record your selection.

After selecting the documents that you wish to order, you can add them to your selection by clicking on the "Confirm" button on the right side of the page.

To view or receive these products, you will then need to:

• Complete your order (access to your selection to make sure your selection matches your needs).
• Confirm your order (access to the contact information confirmation page to enter a delivery address, email address and order reference).
• Pay for your order : access to the My previous orders page to view/download the documents purchased.