Registre du commerce et des sociétés

This article relates to the commercial register in France . For Austria, the Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland, see Commercial Register (Austria) , Commercial Register (Germany) and Commercial Register (Switzerland) . There are other similar registers in almost every country, with different organizations. In the Netherlands , the commercial register is kept at the Chamber of Commerce .

In France, all natural and legal persons who run a business must be registered in the Register of Commerce and Companies (Registre du Commerce et des Sociétés - RCS). The RCS is run by the Rechtspfleger (French: Greffe) of a special commercial court or another competent court.

The commercial registers of the various courts are combined at the RNCS (Registre National du Commerce et des Sociétés) by the Patent Office Institut national de la propriété industrial (INPI). The commercial register was adopted from German law after it was noticed that this system worked , despite the other unfavorable experiences of the Second World War .

history

A trade and business register has existed in France since 1909. Since 2003 it has been subordinate to the Minister of Justice. It is run on his behalf by the GIE RCSL economic interest group. Since then, the register has been completely computerized and documents can be viewed on the RCS website. The earlier documents are currently being digitized and gradually made available to the public.

structure

The RCS is divided into four central departments for this area,

• RCS A (RCS A): natural persons , insofar as they are merchants and operate a trade ;
• RCS B (RCS B): trading companies
• RCS C (RCS C): Groupements d'Intérêt Economique (GIE)
• RCS D (RCS D): Civil Societies

The register is public and can be viewed by anyone. The commercial register number is now identical to the SIREN code , which is issued by INSEE . If a company has several branches, five digits are added to the SIREN code and this number is called SIRET .

Entries

In France there are essentially the following legal forms for companies:

• Société à responsabilité limitée (SARL), corresponds to a GmbH
• Entreprise unipersonnelle à responsabilité limitée (EURL), corresponds to a one-person GmbH
• Société par actions simplifiée (SAS), simple joint stock company
• Société Anonyme (SA), stock corporation with a board of directors
• Société en nom collectif (SNC), general partnership
• Société en commandite (SCS), limited partnership

Special forms of company are:

• SCI (Société civile immobilière)
• Société Civile de Moyens
• Société Civile Professionnelle

The sole proprietorships are categorized into

• Commerçant ( merchant )
• Artisan (craftsman)
• Artisan Commerçant (craftsman who also runs a trade)
• Agent commercial ( sales agent )

The commercial register contains - depending on the legal form - the following information:

• Company and headquarters
• activity
• Bodies (board of directors, shareholders, etc.)
• paid-in capital ( share capital , share capital, etc.)
• authorized signatories

publication

Entries are made in the Journal Officiel . Entries are only made in French and can be viewed on the Internet.

abstract

The extract from the commercial register known from German law is Extrait K for sole proprietorships and Extrait Kbis for legal entities in France . In France, the Extrait Kbis is a form of identification of the existence of a company; it is the only legal document that proves the existence of a company. In most cases, therefore, Extraits Kbis that are not older than three months are required in France.

Web links

• Search on RCS (Luxembourg Commercial Register - German)
• Info meeting

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Quoted from: European Justice Portal - RCS .