Skip to content 
Article by Anker Sorensen, Partner, De Gaulle Fleurance – Avocats et Notaires
The concept of Beneficial Owners, introduced and defined by the regulations against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, is now well established in the minds of top executives and their companies’ usual trade partners and service providers. It is also at the top of the M&A regulatory due diligence and post-closing formalities checklist.
Beneficial Owners in a nutshell
As a brief reminder, every company, except listed companies[1], must indicate the natural person or persons who own or control a business, i.e the beneficial owners. In France and Luxembourg[2], all information on the latter is centralized in the beneficial ownership register (“Registre des Bénéficiaires Effectifs – RBE”). Since the end of July 2024, access to this information is restricted to certain individuals (including inter alia lawyers, or authorities).
A beneficial owner (“BE” for “Bénéficiaire Effectif”) means the natural person, partner or shareholder, who meets one of the following conditions:
- holding, directly or indirectly, more than 25% voting rights or share capital of a company (see the list thereof below);
or
- holding statutory management and supervisory powers over the company, or via other means such as the ability to appoint or remove a majority of the members of the management bodies.
When neither of these conditions is met, the BE is then deemed to be legal representative of the company (“directeur général, président, gérant”, etc.). Where the legal representative of the company is a legal person, when authorized by statute[3], the beneficial owner shall be the natural person, or the persons legally representing that legal person.
The companies and legal entities covered by the BE information requirement are:
- Commercial companies (Sarl, SA, SAS, SASU etc.) and civil companies (SCI, SEL, etc.), incorporated and having their corporate headquarters in France,
- Economic Interest Groups (EIGs) having their corporate headquarters in France,
- Commercial companies headquartered abroad with an establishment in France,
- Other entities subject to registration requirements in the Commercial registry (“RCS’) and the Registre National des Entreprises.
Interestingly, the Conseil National des Greffiers in France considers that the members of a family owned and majority controlled group (parents, children, ascendants or parents’ brothers and sisters being shareholders), none of whom individually holds more than 25% of the share capital, are all deemed to be BEs if, in practice, they act in concert and determine together, by virtue of an express or tacit agreement, the decisions taken at the shareholders’ meetings[4].
The “Association Nationale des Sociétés par Actions’ (“ANSA”) analysis of that same scenario (a family owned and controlled group) diverges slightly from this approach insofar as the ANSA considers that a concert can only be presumed between parents and their minor children, and not between parents and their adult children[5].
Renewing the relevant information pertaining to BEs
The identity of the BEs must be filed with the registry of the relevant court, i.e where the company is incorporated and this can naturally be made online.
According to the French Financial and Monetary code[6], a new filing must be made within 30 days under penalty of sanctions, when the information initially filed with the registry of the court has changed and needs rectification.
Typical examples here are a full or partial change of shareholders, further to (i) an M&A transaction, (ii) a succession, and also as is often the case (iii) the application of a shareholders’ agreement containing a sale and purchase obligation based on certain criteria (termination of a management position, change of control of a shareholder, liquidity provision…)
New sanctions in case of failure to declare, update or misrepresent the company’s BEs
Since 15 June 2025[7], companies which fail to declare or update information concerning their BEs may be automatically struck off/deregistered (“radiés d’office”) from the Companies’ Register (RCS – the “Register”) by the clerk of the relevant commercial court, who proceeds as follows:
- Where information concerning BEs has not been declared, or is false or incomplete, he can send a formal notice to the company asking it to rectify the available information.
- The company then has 3 months from the receipt of the formal notice to take corrective action[8].
- In case of failure to do so, the clerk may automatically strike the company off the Register.
- Under the new statute, applicable from 15 June, the strike-off, which is an administrative measure, and which does not deprive the company of its legal personality[9], may be temporary if useful and accurate information is provided after the strike off, which can then be revoked[10]. Indeed, under French law[11], it is only on dissolution and once the liquidation operations have been completed, that the legal personality of a company disappears and the striking off has nothing in common with a dissolution, which is a separate and different operation.
As before the recent statutory change[12], the presiding judge of the court may also strike a company off the RCS if it fails to update the information concerning its BEs within 3 months of an injunction sent by the same judge. The clerk then also informs the public prosecutor of the company’s strike off.
The company and its management may then be subject to criminal prosecution and face fines and other sanctions[13], including:
a) For the company:
A fine of up to 37.500€,
And additional penalties, such as:
- Dissolution,
- Placement under judicial supervision for a maximum of 5 years,
- Permanent closure, or for a shorter period not exceeding 5 years, of one, several or all of the company’s establishments,
- Exclusion from public tenders, definitively or for a maximum of 5 years,
- Prohibition, definitive or for a maximum of 5 years, from making a public offer over financial securities or from being listed on a stock exchange.
b) For the management
A fine of up to 7.500€ and up to 6 months’ imprisonment, and
A management ban (maximum 15 years) and partial deprivation of the manager’s civil and civic rights.
* * *
Therefore, be aware of your reporting obligations and implement them in a timely manner.
[1] Whose shares are traded on a regulated market in the European Economic Area or on another market imposing equivalent transparency requirements
[2] For Luxembourg – Article 1 of the Law dated 13 January 2019, definition et alia accessible via https://gouvernement.lu/dam-assets/documents/actualites/2019/06-juin/21-registre-braz/RBE-Guide-explicatif-BE.pdf
[3] Under French law, for example the “Président” of an S.A and the “gérant” of an Sarl must be natural persons, I;e “une persone physique”, under penalty of nullity of the appointment
[4] www.infogreffe/rbe
[5] Mémento Pratique Francis Lefebvre, Sociétés Commerciales 2025, N°3353
[6] Article R 561-55 of the Code Monétaire et Financier : Le document relatif au bénéficiaire effectif mentionné au deuxième alinéa de l’article L. 561-46 est déposé au greffe du tribunal de commerce, pour être annexé au registre du commerce et des sociétés, lors de la demande d’immatriculation à ce registre ou au plus tard dans un délai de quinze jours à compter de la délivrance du récépissé de dépôt de dossier de création d’entreprise. Un nouveau document est déposé dans les trente jours suivant tout fait ou acte rendant nécessaire la rectification ou le complément des informations qui y sont mentionnées.
[7] Loi 2025-532 du 13 juin 2025, publiée au JORF 14 texte N°2, commented also in BRDA 13/25, Editions Francis Lefebvre
[8] Article L 561-47 of the Code Monétaire et Financier : “Lorsque le greffier constate qu’une société ou une entité … n’a pas déclaré au registre du commerce et des sociétés ou mis en conformité les informations relatives aux bénéficiaires effectifs à l’expiration d’un délai de trois mois à compter d’une mise en demeure de la société ou de l’entité par lettre recommandée avec demande d’avis de réception adressée à son siège social, il peut procéder à sa radiation d’office dudit registre. Toute radiation d’office effectuée en application du présent article est portée à la connaissance du teneur du registre national des entreprises et du ministère public. Elle est susceptible de faire l’objet d’un rapport dans des conditions fixées par décret »
[9] See BRDA, mentioned under footnote 7 above, and foot note in that comment
[10] See Article L 561-47 of the CMF above, last sentence
[11] Article 1844-8 of the French Civil Code
[12] See footnote 7 above
[13] For full details, see Déclaration des bénéficiaires effectifs de la société | Entreprendre.Service-Public.fr
