France Company Data Suppliers: An Editorial Buyer's Guide

The buyer market in France

France presents a deceptively streamlined official register on the surface. Since January 2023, the Registre National des Entreprises (RNE) has been the single unified national register for French businesses, replacing the previous fragmented system of Centres de Formalites des Entreprises (CFEs). The Institut National de la Propriete Industrielle (INPI) operates the RNE and provides free public access through data.inpi.fr. That consolidation makes France better structured than Germany for programmatic access, but the commercial supplier market is still rich, well-developed, and meaningfully differentiated.

The buyers are varied. French and European banks running KYC and credit decisions on French counterparties need both the official register extract (Kbis document) and a credit signal from the commercial bureau tier. AML compliance teams working under France’s Lutte contre le blanchiment de capitaux et le financement du terrorisme (LCB-FT) framework need beneficial ownership data from the Registre des Beneficiaires Effectifs (RBE) and access to watchlist screening. Law firms doing M&A and transaction work need certified Kbis extracts and full shareholder lists. Foreign buyers and multinational procurement teams need a pathway from the French SIREN number to an international ownership graph.

The regulatory environment is specific. France’s AML/CFT obligations are enforced through TRACFIN, the financial intelligence unit under the Ministry of Economy (Tracfin), and through the Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) for capital markets. The Registre des Beneficiaires Effectifs (RBE) became mandatory following the Fourth EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive and is lodged with the Greffe (commercial court clerk) of each regional commercial court. Access to the RBE has been contested: following the Court of Justice of the European Union’s November 2022 ruling restricting unconditional public access to beneficial ownership registers, France limited public access; as of this writing, access to the RBE requires registration and a demonstrated legitimate interest for some entity types [VERIFY: current French RBE access rules from INPI or Legifrance, 2025-2026]. FATF’s mutual evaluations are relevant context for French AML supervisors.

The market overview

1. INPI and the Registre National des Entreprises (direct)

The INPI took over as the operator of the Registre National des Entreprises (RNE) on 1 January 2023. The RNE consolidates what was previously managed separately by INPI (for craftspeople and sole traders), the Registre du Commerce et des Societes (RCS, commercial companies), and the Registre des Metiers (RM, artisans). The public data portal, data.inpi.fr, provides free access to company name, SIREN/SIRET numbers, legal form, registered address, activity codes (APE/NAF), incorporation date, status, and officer names. The full company extract (equivalent to the former Kbis) is available through the guichet-entreprises.fr portal.

The SIREN (9 digits, entity level) and SIRET (14 digits, establishment level) numbering system, maintained by INSEE (Institut national de la statistique et des etudes economiques), is the backbone of French company identification. The open SIRENE database from INSEE provides free bulk access to SIREN/SIRET data and is widely used for programmatic lookups. INPI also provides an open API (data.inpi.fr API) for programmatic access to RNE data, which is a material advantage over the German Handelsregister.

Beneficial ownership data in the Registre des Beneficiaires Effectifs is lodged with the Greffe of each commercial court and accessible through Infogreffe (see below) for registered users with a legitimate interest. The RBE covers beneficial owners holding more than 25% of capital or voting rights, or otherwise exerting control. Data quality depends on self-reporting by obliged entities.

Best-fit buyers: technical teams building French company lookups via API, compliance teams verifying entity existence and basic officer details, and legal teams needing the official Kbis equivalent for French counterparties.

2. Infogreffe

Infogreffe is operated by the GIE Infogreffe, the inter-professional grouping of French commercial court clerks (Greffiers des Tribunaux de Commerce). It is the official digital channel for accessing certified commercial court records for French businesses, including the Extrait Kbis (the official certificate of a company’s existence and legal status), shareholder lists (Statuts), and beneficial ownership declarations (RBE).

The Extrait Kbis, which is the document French banks, notaries, and counterparties typically require as proof of a company’s legal existence, is available through Infogreffe at EUR 3.42 (USD 3.70) per extract including VAT [VERIFY: confirm current Infogreffe Kbis pricing from infogreffe.fr]. The Kbis includes company name, SIREN, legal form, registered address, capital, date of registration, names of managers, and a summary of filed documents. It is the closest French equivalent to a UK Companies House printout or a German notarised Handelsregisterauszug.

Infogreffe also provides access to company financials (comptes annuels) lodged with the commercial courts, litigation and insolvency notices, and the RBE for registered users. Its API is available for enterprise buyers through an Infogreffe professional subscription. The primary limitation is that Infogreffe is focused on certified official documents rather than enriched commercial data; it does not provide credit scores, payment behaviour, or monitoring services.

Best-fit buyers: banks and lenders requiring certified Kbis for client onboarding, legal teams doing corporate transactions, and compliance teams needing primary-source RBE beneficial ownership filings.

3. Pappers

Pappers is a French legal data startup that aggregates and normalises official French company data into a clean, structured, freely accessible interface. Pappers provides free access to company search, SIREN lookup, corporate filings, officer histories, financial statement summaries, and beneficial ownership data where publicly available. It also offers a paid API (Pappers API) for programmatic access at pricing ranging from EUR 0 for a free tier to enterprise contracts.

Pappers is notable because it has assembled a genuinely useful free layer over French official data that is easier to navigate than INPI’s own portal for many use cases. Its API documentation is in English as well as French, making it accessible to foreign buyers. Paid API pricing starts at approximately EUR 49 to EUR 299 (USD 54 to USD 328) per month depending on request volume [VERIFY: current Pappers API pricing from pappers.fr]. For buyers who want clean French company data via API without committing to an Infogreffe or commercial bureau contract, Pappers is the lowest-friction entry point.

Best-fit buyers: developers and technical teams building French company lookup or KYB workflows, foreign buyers who find the official French portals inaccessible in practice, and buyers who need structured French company data at low to moderate volume.

4. Societe.com

Societe.com (operated by SAS Societe.com) is one of France’s most visited company information portals, providing free basic company search and paid premium reports. It covers approximately 14 million French businesses and pulls from official sources including INPI’s RNE, INSEE’s SIRENE, Infogreffe, and Bodacc (the official bulletin for commercial announcements).

Societe.com’s free tier covers basic company search, SIREN, address, activity code, and officer names. Premium reports add financial ratios, payment behaviour indicators, credit scores, litigation, and monitoring alerts. Premium report pricing is not fully published but typically runs EUR 10 to EUR 50 (USD 11 to USD 55) per report for individual purchases, with subscription plans available for professional users [VERIFY: current Societe.com premium pricing]. The platform is primarily French-language, with some partial English available.

Best-fit buyers: French-domestic SME buyers and credit controllers wanting a low-cost, self-service credit and company check on French counterparties, occasional foreign buyers who need basic French company information without a bureau contract.

5. Altares (Dun and Bradstreet France)

Altares is Dun and Bradstreet’s exclusive partner for France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. It is the primary vehicle for the D&B global data network in the French market, providing the D-U-N-S Number system, credit assessments, trade payment data, compliance solutions, and enterprise data products for French entities. Altares was established in 1995 and is a recognised member of the French credit data ecosystem, with long-standing relationships with French banks, insurers, and trade credit platforms.

Altares’s core product for compliance buyers is the Altares Credit Report, combining RNE data, Infogreffe financials, Bodacc announcements, trade payment behaviour from its contributor network, and a D&B credit score and risk indicator. The D-U-N-S Number links French entities into D&B’s global graph, covering over 500 million businesses. Altares OnBoard provides a KYB workflow product for client onboarding that integrates beneficial ownership verification and sanctions screening. Monitoring products alert on changes to company status, insolvency proceedings, and Bodacc publications.

Pricing is enterprise-contract and not publicly listed. Indicative market positioning is above Societe.com and Pappers but below Moody’s Orbis in the price stack, typically in the EUR 3,000 to EUR 30,000 (USD 3,300 to USD 33,000) per year range for mid-market enterprise buyers depending on volume and product mix [VERIFY: current Altares pricing from altares.com]. Best-fit buyers: French and European corporate credit teams, compliance teams needing a French supplier with D-U-N-S global identifier integration, and multinational procurement teams onboarding French vendors.

6. Ellisphere

Ellisphere (formerly Coface Services) is a French commercial credit bureau and business intelligence company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Coface, the trade credit insurance group. Ellisphere operates independently from Coface’s insurance business and provides credit information, risk monitoring, and decision analytics for French and European corporate clients.

Ellisphere’s product covers approximately 14 million French companies and 500 million global entities, with a credit scoring model specific to the French market. Its data sourcing includes RNE, SIRENE, Infogreffe financials, Bodacc announcements, trade payment behaviour from Coface’s credit insurance portfolio (one of Europe’s largest), and litigation from French commercial courts. The trade payment data from Coface’s underwriting experience gives Ellisphere a unique signal on French company payment behaviour that is not available in the same form from pure data aggregators.

Pricing is not publicly listed and is contract-negotiated for enterprise buyers [VERIFY: current Ellisphere pricing from ellisphere.com]. Best-fit buyers: French and European banks, credit insurers, and corporate credit teams who want deep French payment-behaviour data sourced from Coface’s insurance portfolio experience.

7. Coface (trade credit and risk monitoring)

Coface itself, the parent of Ellisphere, offers a country risk and business information product line that includes French company credit ratings, country risk assessments, and global supply-chain risk data. For buyers who are primarily interested in country-level risk or sector-level credit risk in France rather than individual company checks, Coface’s standalone business information products (separate from its insurance offering) provide a useful macro-commercial layer. Coface’s country risk ratings are freely available on their public site; individual company reports are sold through Ellisphere.

At-a-glance comparison table

When to go direct vs use a reseller

For French company data, the decision follows a clear hierarchy.

Go direct to INPI/RNE and Infogreffe when you need a certified official document. The Extrait Kbis from Infogreffe is the document that French banks, notaries, and counterparties actually require as proof of existence. No commercial supplier’s report substitutes for a Kbis in a French legal or regulatory process. The INPI API is the right channel for programmatic lookups at low to moderate volume when certified status is not required.

Use Pappers when you want a cleaner interface and English documentation over official French data sources, particularly for API integrations where the INPI portal’s UX creates friction for foreign development teams.

Use Altares when you need the D-U-N-S identifier system for cross-border supplier onboarding, the global ownership graph, or a KYB workflow that integrates French and international KYC in a single platform.

Use Ellisphere when French payment-behaviour depth matters. The Coface insurance underwriting data that feeds Ellisphere’s payment signals is not replicated by any other French-market supplier.

Use Societe.com for occasional self-service checks by non-technical buyers who do not justify a commercial bureau contract.

The volume break-even is similar to other markets: below 20 to 30 checks per month, per-report economics from Pappers or Societe.com are more efficient than an annual contract. Above that threshold, an Altares or Ellisphere subscription typically delivers better per-unit economics plus monitoring and API access.

UBO depth comparison

France’s Registre des Beneficiaires Effectifs (RBE) is lodged with the Greffe of each commercial court and accessible through Infogreffe for registered professional users with a legitimate interest. Following the CJEU November 2022 ruling, public access to UBO registers has been restricted across EU member states, and France has adjusted its access rules accordingly [VERIFY: current French RBE access rules from Infogreffe or INPI, 2025-2026].

Infogreffe provides access to the primary-source RBE filings for professional subscribers. Altares integrates RBE data into its KYB workflow product and enriches it with the D-U-N-S global ownership graph for cross-border tracing. Ellisphere provides RBE-derived beneficial ownership data as part of its credit report product. Pappers surfaces beneficial ownership data where it is publicly accessible. For multi-hop UBO tracing beyond the immediate French entity, Moody’s Orbis (not covered as a standalone supplier here but available for enterprise buyers) is the benchmark.

Practically, for a French SAS or SARL with foreign shareholders, a compliance buyer should expect to combine Infogreffe’s certified RBE extract (for the primary-source lodgement) with Altares or Orbis (for cross-border ownership tracing) to get a complete beneficial ownership picture.

Compliance-buyer use cases

KYC onboarding: A bank onboarding a French SAS needs: (1) a current Extrait Kbis from Infogreffe confirming legal existence, current managers, and registered capital, (2) RBE beneficial ownership data, (3) a credit report for financial due diligence, and (4) PEP and sanctions screening on named individuals. Altares or Ellisphere can deliver points 1 through 3 in a single pull; Infogreffe direct provides the certified Kbis as a standalone.

AML monitoring: Portfolio monitoring on existing French corporate clients is best handled through Altares or Ellisphere alert services, which flag changes to company status, Bodacc insolvency and dissolution announcements, and court filings. INPI’s own notification service for RNE changes is also available for programmatic subscribers.

Trade credit decisions: French credit controllers extending trade credit to French business customers typically run Ellisphere or Altares for payment behaviour and credit scores. Coface’s trade payment data in Ellisphere is the most differentiated signal in this category.

M&A due diligence: A foreign acquirer conducting due diligence on a French target needs certified Kbis extracts, full shareholder lists (statuts), RBE beneficial ownership, three years of Infogreffe financials, and an Altares or Ellisphere commercial credit picture. Bodacc is the reference for any official announcements (insolvency proceedings, capital changes, name changes) during the target’s operating history.

Editorial verdict

If you are a French credit controller or a European bank making domestic credit decisions on French counterparties, Ellisphere’s trade payment data from the Coface insurance portfolio is the most differentiated product in the market and worth the contract discussion.

If you are a multinational procurement team or a global compliance function onboarding French vendors, Altares is the practical choice for its D-U-N-S integration and its KYB workflow product that bridges French and international onboarding.

If you are a developer building a French company lookup or KYB integration, start with the INPI API and Pappers API before committing to a commercial bureau; both offer clean, structured access at a fraction of the enterprise contract cost.

If you need a one-off certified Kbis for a legal file, go directly to Infogreffe. That is a EUR 3.42 document, and no commercial supplier’s report replaces it in a French legal process.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Kbis and do I need it?

The Extrait Kbis is the official French company identity document, issued by the Greffe of the commercial court where the company is registered. It is the French equivalent of a Companies House printout or an ACRA Business Profile. French banks, notaries, and corporate counterparties universally require a Kbis as proof of legal existence. The Kbis includes company name, SIREN, legal form, registered address, stated capital, registration date, manager names, and a list of filed documents. It is not a credit report. It says nothing about payment behaviour, financial health, or ownership chains. For compliance buyers, it is the starting point, not the endpoint. A Kbis that is more than three months old is sometimes not accepted by counterparties; buyers should confirm the date requirement with the requesting party.

Is the French beneficial ownership register publicly accessible?

Following the Court of Justice of the European Union ruling of November 2022 (Cases C-37/20 and C-601/20), which found that requiring unconditional public access to beneficial ownership registers infringed core rights under the EU Charter, France restricted public access to the Registre des Beneficiaires Effectifs. As of 2025-2026, access for general members of the public requires registration and a demonstrated legitimate interest. Professional users (lawyers, notaries, accountants, financial institutions) have broader access. Compliance buyers should verify the current access rules with Infogreffe or INPI before building workflows that depend on open access to the RBE [VERIFY: current French RBE access policy from infogreffe.fr or legifrance.gouv.fr, 2026].

What is the difference between Altares and Ellisphere?

Both are French-market commercial data suppliers, but they have different ownership and data positioning. Altares is D&B’s exclusive partner for France, Belgium, and Luxembourg and is the vehicle for the D-U-N-S global identifier in France. Its strength is in cross-border supplier onboarding and the global D&B ownership graph. Ellisphere is owned by Coface (the French trade credit insurance group) and draws on Coface’s insurance underwriting data for French payment behaviour. For a purely French-domestic trade credit decision, Ellisphere’s Coface-sourced payment data is often the more differentiated product. For a multinational buyer onboarding French vendors into a global system, Altares’s D-U-N-S integration is the deciding factor.

How does the French company number system work?

Every French business entity receives a SIREN number (9 digits) from INSEE at the time of registration. Each establishment of that entity receives a SIRET number (14 digits: SIREN + 5-digit establishment suffix). The APE code (Activite Principale Exercee, from the INSEE NAF classification) identifies the entity’s primary business activity. For compliance buyers, the SIREN is the primary identifier for legal entity lookups. Pappers and Infogreffe both accept SIREN as a search input. The SIRET is used for employment and tax filings and is relevant for buyers verifying that a specific operating establishment is active.

What changed with the INPI taking over the RNE in 2023?

Before 1 January 2023, French business registration was fragmented across multiple bodies: INPI for intellectual property and certain self-employed categories, the Greffe for commercial companies (via Infogreffe), URSSAF for self-employed social security, and others. The reform created the single Registre National des Entreprises (RNE), with INPI as the unified operator and guichet-entreprises.fr as the single registration portal. For compliance buyers, the practical impact is that INPI’s data.inpi.fr API is now the authoritative programmatic source for French company data across all entity types. Infogreffe remains the channel for certified commercial court documents (Kbis) and for commercial court-specific filings (financials, shareholder lists, RBE).

Citations: INPI; AMF; Tracfin; FATF. Pricing data where marked [VERIFY] is estimated from public sources and should be confirmed directly with the supplier before procurement decisions.