Mandate · France

France's B2B e-invoicing mandate: what applies from September 2026

Two dates, one for receiving and one for issuing, and the issuing date depends on the size of your business. Here is the calendar as it stands, and what changed to get there.

From 1 September 2026, every VAT-taxable business in France must be able to receive electronic invoices, regardless of size. There is no phasing on this side of the mandate: reception must go through an approved platform under article 289 bis of the Code général des impôts (CGI).

Issuing is phased by company size

The obligation to issue electronic invoices follows the same 1 September 2026 date for grandes entreprises and ETI (entreprises de taille intermédiaire). PME, TPE and microentreprises get a further year, to 1 September 2027. The size categories are those set by décret n° 2008-1354 du 18 décembre 2008. An ETI is a company that is not a PME, has fewer than 5,000 employees, and has turnover of at most €1.5bn or a balance sheet total of at most €2bn.

A narrower role for the state

The portail public de facturation (PPF) was announced on 15 October 2024 to stop acting as an exchange platform, and décret n° 2026-677 du 27 juillet 2026 removes it from Annexe II of the CGI. What the state still runs is the annuaire central under article 289 bis CGI (a directory that approved platforms use to route invoices to each other), plus the collection of invoice and e-reporting data under article 289 E CGI. Sending and receiving invoices is a job for approved platforms. It is not a state-run exchange.

One term change is worth flagging on its own. Décret n° 2026-677 replaces plateforme de dématérialisation partenaire (PDP) with plateforme agréée (PA, approved platform) throughout, and the DGFiP's guidance now uses only the newer term. If you are holding a document from 2025 or earlier that talks about a "PDP", it is describing the same kind of platform under its old name.

EN 16931 formats, in two syntaxes, plus a hybrid

The mandated format set is defined by AFNOR's experimental standard XP Z12-012 (May 2025). It is not defined by décret. Its minimum base (socle minimum) is EN 16931 as implemented in UBL and UN/CEFACT CII (D22B), plus Factur-X, a hybrid format that carries the structured data alongside a human-readable PDF. Two data profiles apply: EN16931 and the extended EXTENDED-CTC-FR.

The soft landing is not a delay

The DGFiP has said there will be no sanctions during the start-up phase for businesses that are visibly on a compliance trajectory. It is explicit that this is neither a postponement nor a suspension of the obligation itself — the dates above still apply, and penalties exist under article 123 of the loi de finances pour 2026 (loi n° 2026-103 du 19 février 2026), which also broadens e-reporting scope and confirms the end of the PPF as an exchange platform.

What this does not cover

EUInvoice does not transmit invoices over any network, neither Peppol, nor the French approved-platform channel, nor any other exchange system. Producing a document to the required format is a separate question from delivering it, and delivery is a role for an approved platform, chosen and contracted separately. This article also does not cover e-reporting (the parallel obligation to report certain transaction and payment data to the tax authority) in any detail; it is mentioned above only where it shares an instrument with the invoicing mandate.