Against a business, late payment penalties have been running since the due date with no reminder needed, and €40 is added per invoice. Against an individual, none of that exists.
Most letter templates mix the two up. So you start by saying who owes you money.
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This is the question that decides everything: late payment penalties and the €40 fee only exist between businesses.
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Information verified on October 1, 2026. Document composed from the model published by the French authorities, and dated. It is not legal advice: you remain responsible for the accuracy of what you declare and sign.
The official pages where we read the rules and amounts applied here.
Article L. 441-10 of the commercial code is unambiguous: late payment penalties are due with no reminder needed, from the day after the payment date. You do not have to have claimed them, or even thought about them: they are yours. As for the rate:
Article D. 441-5 adds a flat fee of €40 for recovery costs. Three things to know about it:
The commercial code only governs relations between businesses. A private client owes you neither penalties nor the €40 fee, and claiming those sums would weaken your case. Article 1344-1 of the civil code applies instead: the formal demand sets off interest at the statutory rate, 2.75% a year for a professional creditor, from the day they receive it. One exception: if your quote or your terms say the due date alone serves as formal notice, as article 1344 allows, interest runs from the due date.
You have five years to act against a business, but only two years against an individual, under article L. 218-2 of the consumer code, a period your terms and conditions cannot extend. And these periods run from the end of your work, not from the invoice date or its due date: that is how the Cour de cassation rules, unless the contract or the law says otherwise. After that, the debt still exists, but your client need only raise the limitation period to pay nothing. Note that a formal demand does not interrupt that period. Court action, a protective measure or an acknowledgement of the debt by your client does.
| What you claim | A business | An individual |
|---|---|---|
| The invoice principal | From the day after the due date | From the day after the due date |
| Late payment penalties | As of right, since the due date | Nothing |
| Interest at the statutory rate | Not applicable, penalties replace it | From the letter, or from the due date if the contract says so |
| The €40 flat fee | As of right, per invoice | Nothing |
| The time left to go to court | 5 years from the end of the work | 2 years from the end of the work |
Rates recorded on 8 September 2026: statutory rate 2.75% for a professional creditor, European Central Bank main rate 2.40%. They are reset on 1 January and 1 July, and we update them every six months.
Hélène, a graphic designer, delivered a visual identity to an agency in February. A €3,200 invoice, payable within thirty days, due on 15 March.
By the end of August, still nothing. She sends a letter template found online, politely asking for the €3,200.
Yet her terms of sale set a rate of 12%: over 168 days of delay, that is €176.75 in penalties.
And the €40 fee had been hers since 16 March, without her having to ask for anything.
Hélène left over two hundred euros on the table. And the agency learned that it could pay this invoice late without it costing a cent.
Claim the principal, the penalties and the €40 in the same letter. All three are due on the same footing.
Send it by registered post with acknowledgement of receipt, and keep the acknowledgement. It proves the date of receipt.
After fifteen days with no payment, the payment order application is filed without a lawyer: with the commercial court if the debt arises from a commercial transaction between traders, with the judicial court otherwise, for instance if your client is a liberal professional.
You have five years from the end of your work to go to court, and the letter does not stop that clock: court action or an acknowledgement of the debt by your client interrupts it.
Claim neither penalties nor the €40 fee. They do not exist in this relationship, and asking for them works against you.
Unless your quote says otherwise, the letter starts interest at the statutory rate from the day it is received, so send it without waiting.
The payment order is then filed with the judicial court where your client lives, not the commercial court.
You only have two years from the end of your work, not from the invoice. After that, your client need only raise the limitation period to pay nothing.
Between businesses, late payment penalties are owed as of right, even if your terms of sale set none. The law then applies a default rate equal to the European Central Bank's main rate plus ten points, 12.40% in the second half of 2026. Your terms of sale only serve to set a different rate, provided it does not drop below 8.25%.
The €40 flat recovery fee is claimed per invoice, not per client. Three unpaid invoices from the same client means three €40 fees, that is €120. The fee covers your recovery costs on a flat-rate basis; if those costs genuinely exceed €40, you can ask for the difference, but you then have to evidence them.
A formal demand is not required as such before going to court, but it is almost always expected: it proves you asked, it dates your claim, and for a private client it starts interest running, unless your contract starts it from the due date. Without it, your payment order file goes in with one document missing.
An application for a payment order is free before the judicial court and costs around thirty euros in registry fees before the commercial court. It is made in writing, with no hearing and no lawyer; if your client files an objection before the judicial court for more than €10,000, a lawyer becomes compulsory. The real cost comes afterwards: the order must be served by a commissioner of justice within six months, and that service is paid for.
Even when your client disputes the invoice, the formal demand is still of use, but its role changes: it forces you to set out in writing what you are claiming and on what basis, and their reply will tell you whether the dispute is about the amount, the work, or nothing at all. A payment order, on the other hand, only suits debts that are not seriously disputed: if the dispute holds up, you will need a full claim instead.
The time limit for acting against a client who does not pay runs, in principle, from the end of your work. For the Cour de cassation, the obligation to pay arises when the work ordered has been carried out: the five-year period against a business, or the two-year period against an individual, runs from that day, unless the contract or the law provides otherwise. Neither the invoice date nor its due date pushes it back: an invoice issued late extends nothing.
Invoicing properly is half the work.
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