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Spotlight PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 The EU e-invoicing mandate is here — France Sept 2026, Belgium Jan 2026, Germany 2025.

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Foundations

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Standards

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Flagship messages

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Tools

France — E-invoicing mandate 2026 / 2027

France has chosen a decentralised model built on a registry of accredited Dematerialisation Partner Platforms (PDP) and a Public Invoicing Portal (PPF) repositioned as a tax data aggregator.

Regulatory timeline

The French mandate is anchored in the 2020 Finance Act and was refined through a series of ordinances, decrees and orders. Main milestones published in the Journal Officiel:

  • Law 2019-1479 of 28 December 2019 — Finance Act 2020, article 153. Empowered the government to roll out B2B e-invoicing by ordinance and created a tax-data reporting obligation (e-reporting).
  • Ordinance 2021-1190 of 15 September 2021. Lays down the principles of the obligation, the twin flows (e-invoicing between French taxable persons and e-reporting for B2C and international flows), and PDP accreditation.
  • Decree 2022-1299 of 7 October 2022. Sets implementing rules, the original timeline (since superseded by deferrals), PDP registration procedure, and mandatory invoice mentions.
  • Order of 7 October 2022. Fixes the semantic models and accepted syntaxes (UBL 2.1, CII, Factur-X) and a 24-item base of mandatory mentions on top of EN 16931.
  • DGFiP press release of 28 July 2023. First deferral of the timeline, with go-live moved to 2026.
  • Article 91 of the 2024 Finance Act (Law 2023-1322 of 29 December 2023). Confirms the timeline: September 2026 for receipt and for issuance by large enterprises and intermediate companies, September 2027 for SME and micro-business issuance.
  • Decree 2024-266 of 25 March 2024. Technical overhaul reorganising operations around PDPs, with a PPF refocused on the registry and tax aggregation role.

Deep dives — 13 dedicated pages

Thirteen dedicated pages drill into every dimension of the French e-invoicing chantier — the 2026 reform, the technical specs and the real-world B2B usage that pre-dates and survives the reform.

2026 reform

  • PPF — Public Invoicing Portal · AIFE architecture, REST + SFTP APIs, UBL 2.1 / CII / Factur-X formats, RGS certificates, France Connect Pro.
  • Registered PDPs (Partner Platforms) · DGFiP registry, 36-month renewable certification, 10+ major operators (Iliad, Docaposte, Tiime, Pennylane, Cegedim, Sage…).
  • E-reporting · The other half of the reform: B2C transactions, intra-EU B2B, payment statuses. Penalties of 250 € per missing report.
  • 10 lifecycle statuses · Invoice state machine: Submitted → Rejected → Approved → Refused → Payment transmitted → Cashed → Archived. JSON events between PDPs per AIFE spec.
  • Final calendar 2026 / 2027 · 1 Sep 2026: universal reception + large / mid-cap issuance. 1 Sep 2027: SME / micro issuance. Decree 2024-1099 post-arbitration.

Technical specs

  • Factur-X — FNFE-MPE · 5 profiles MINIMUM → EXTENDED, hybrid PDF/A-3 + embedded CII XML. FNFE-MPE Schematron rules + French CIUS.
  • CTC 5-corner model · Hybrid between PEPPOL 4-corner and pure clearance. Compared with Italy SdI, Brazil NF-e, Poland KSeF, Germany Wachstumschancengesetz.
  • Central directory · REST API + OAuth 2.0, lookup by SIREN, JSON + JSON-LD, DGFiP webhooks, 24h cache TTL recommended.
  • Chorus Pro · Historical B2G platform since 2017. 73,000 public entities, 124M invoices/year. Transparent migration to PPF.

Real-world B2B usage

  • EDIFACT retail · Carrefour, Leclerc, Auchan, Casino, Intermarché, Système U — EANCOM 2002 S4/S5 subsets, ~3 billion messages/year.
  • EDIFACT automotive · Stellantis, Renault Group, Valeo, Forvia, Faurecia — Galia + VDA + Odette standards, OFTP2 transport over ENX.
  • GS1 France + ECR France · National GTIN/GLN/SSCC issuer, EPCIS traceability, GS1 Digital Link rollout 2025-2026.
  • French VAT regimes · Auto-entrepreneur, micro-BNC, simplified actual, normal actual. Rates 0/2.1/5.5/10/20%. Reverse charge for construction, waste, B2B telecom.

Technical schema

Three syntaxes are accepted by the French PPF and by PDPs:

  • UBL 2.1 — the OASIS syntax derived from PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0, compliant with the EN 16931 semantic model. See our PEPPOL page and the official spec at docs.peppol.eu/poacc/billing/3.0/.
  • UN/CEFACT CII 16B — Cross Industry Invoice, the UN XML syntax used as the internal payload of Factur-X.
  • Factur-X 1.0 — PDF/A-3 with embedded CII XML, default profile EN 16931. See the dedicated Factur-X / ZUGFeRD page.

The French profile imposes 24 mandatory mentions on top of the EN 16931 core (mentions required by Tax Code Article 242 nonies A Annex II, SIREN number, payment terms, late payment penalties, etc.). The BR-FR-XX business rules of the French CIUS are published in the specification document on the DGFiP website. Minimal example of a Factur-X EN 16931 invoice (the XML embedded in the PDF):

xmlfacturx-en16931-fr.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rsm:CrossIndustryInvoice
    xmlns:rsm="urn:un:unece:uncefact:data:standard:CrossIndustryInvoice:100"
    xmlns:ram="urn:un:unece:uncefact:data:standard:ReusableAggregateBusinessInformationEntity:100"
    xmlns:udt="urn:un:unece:uncefact:data:standard:UnqualifiedDataType:100">
  <rsm:ExchangedDocumentContext>
    <ram:GuidelineSpecifiedDocumentContextParameter>
      <ram:ID>urn:cen.eu:en16931:2017#compliant#urn:factur-x.eu:1p0:en16931</ram:ID>
    </ram:GuidelineSpecifiedDocumentContextParameter>
  </rsm:ExchangedDocumentContext>
  <rsm:ExchangedDocument>
    <ram:ID>FR-2026-09142</ram:ID>
    <ram:TypeCode>380</ram:TypeCode>
    <ram:IssueDateTime>
      <udt:DateTimeString format="102">20260901</udt:DateTimeString>
    </ram:IssueDateTime>
  </rsm:ExchangedDocument>
  <rsm:SupplyChainTradeTransaction>
    <ram:ApplicableHeaderTradeAgreement>
      <ram:SellerTradeParty>
        <ram:Name>Atelier Numerique SAS</ram:Name>
        <ram:SpecifiedLegalOrganization>
          <ram:ID schemeID="0002">80214579500024</ram:ID>
        </ram:SpecifiedLegalOrganization>
      </ram:SellerTradeParty>
      <ram:BuyerTradeParty>
        <ram:Name>Cooperative Aquitaine</ram:Name>
        <ram:SpecifiedLegalOrganization>
          <ram:ID schemeID="0002">52145201400018</ram:ID>
        </ram:SpecifiedLegalOrganization>
      </ram:BuyerTradeParty>
    </ram:ApplicableHeaderTradeAgreement>
  </rsm:SupplyChainTradeTransaction>
</rsm:CrossIndustryInvoice>

Submission flow

The French model is a decentralised four-corner: the seller (corner 1) hands the invoice to its PDP (corner 2), which routes it via the interoperable network (potentially using PPF as a clearing hub) to the buyer's PDP (corner 3), which delivers the document to the buyer ERP (corner 4). In parallel, the PPF aggregator gathers the tax data required by DGFiP (e-reporting of amounts, lifecycle statuses, B2C flows).

textppf-pdp-flow.txt
┌──────────────┐    ┌─────────┐    ┌──────────────┐    ┌─────────┐    ┌──────────────┐
│ Seller ERP   │───>│ PDP-S   │───>│ PPF (DGFiP)  │───>│ PDP-B   │───>│ Buyer ERP    │
│ (corner 1)   │    │(corner 2)│   │ aggregator    │    │(corner 3)│   │ (corner 4)   │
└──────────────┘    └─────────┘    └──────────────┘    └─────────┘    └──────────────┘
                                          │
                                          ▼
                                ┌──────────────────┐
                                │ Tax data         │
                                │  → DGFiP / VAT   │
                                └──────────────────┘

Invoice lifecycle ships with standardised statuses (deposited, rejected, refused, paid…) that PDPs exchange in a structured format alongside the business document.

Validation

Tooling:

  • Official PPF validator — not yet published as of writing. DGFiP has announced a validation service available to vendors before the 2026 go-live.
  • PEPPOL validator online: /en/tools/peppol-validator/ — EN 16931 rules and PEPPOL CIUS rules for UBL flows.
  • EN 16931 validator: /en/tools/en16931-validator/ — base business rules BR-* and BR-CO-*.
  • Community PEPPOL validator: peppol.helger.com — public service maintained by Philip Helger, runs the full PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 Schematron.

Common pitfalls

  1. PPF vs PDP. After the 2023-2024 overhauls the PPF is no longer a mandatory transmission portal for B2B flows: it is a tax aggregator. Any architecture assuming direct submission to the PPF must be revised; B2B flows go through an accredited PDP.
  2. SIREN vs SIRET in the registry. The French electronic identifier uses SIREN (9 digits) for the legal entity and SIRET (14 digits) for the establishment. The PEPPOL schemeID is 0009 for both, but the lengths differ — a frequent source of confusion that freezes lookups in the SMP if the value is malformed.
  3. 24 mandatory mentions on top of EN 16931. A file that passes generic PEPPOL Schematron can still fail the French CIUS if a required business mention is missing (for example BT-23 business process, detailed payment terms, or the contract reference).
  4. Lifecycle and inter-PDP statuses. The mandate requires reporting the lifecycle (deposited, rejected, paid…) between PDPs and toward the PPF. An integration that ignores business statuses breaks compliance even if invoices are structurally valid.
  5. Parallel B2C and international e-reporting. The obligation is not only B2B e-invoicing but also e-reporting of transaction data for B2C and international flows. Many implementations overlook this channel, which travels to the DGFiP through the PDP on a distinct route.