Registered PDPs

Partner Dematerialisation Platforms (PDPs) are the private operators registered by DGFiP to transmit, receive and report electronic invoices. At the heart of the French four-corner model, they replace the PPF as the mandatory pass-through for B2B.

What is a PDP?

A PDP is a private operator that has obtained registration from DGFiP to perform three mandatory roles:

1. Emission — receive invoices from sender clients (via ERP, EDI, API or portal connector), validate them syntactically and semantically against EN 16931 + the 24 French clauses, then forward them either to the recipient PDP (direct interop) or to the PPF (fallback / routing).
2. Reception — receive invoices addressed to receiver clients, manage lifecycle statuses (10 standardised statuses), and make the invoice available in the buyer ERP.
3. E-reporting — extract tax data (net totals, VAT, statuses) and transmit them to the PPF concentrator, to feed the pre-filled monthly or quarterly VAT return.

A PDP is also the only third party authorised to act as a 10-year legal archive operator for the invoices it transmits, per article L102 B of the French tax code (CGI). The PPF, by contrast, only stores e-reporting metadata.

Registration procedure

The registration procedure is governed by articles 4 to 11 of decree 2022-1299 and the order of 9 December 2022. It runs in four steps:

1. Application file — legal identity, technical conformance, regulatory conformance, security. Submitted online on the DGFiP portal.
2. Initial audit — performed by an independent body (LSTI, AFNOR, BSI, etc.). Document review and end-to-end testing on a PPF qualification environment.
3. Registration decision — by DGFiP order, published in the Bulletin Officiel des Finances Publiques (BOFiP). Registration is valid for 36 months.
4. Annual audit — light audit every year, full audit at renewal. The PDP must maintain conformance; otherwise registration may be suspended or withdrawn.

PDP application file — DGFiP
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1. Operator legal identity
   - SIREN, status, capital, executives
   - Certified accounts (last 3 fiscal years)
   - Bank guarantee or minimum capitalisation (GDPR + redundancy)

2. Technical conformance (audit 1)
   - PPF REST API connectors documented
   - PEPPOL AS4 connector if EU interop
   - Support for UBL 2.1, CII D16B, Factur-X 1.0.7+
   - Lifecycle: 10 statuses implemented
   - 10-year archive certified (NF Z42-013 or e-IDAS)

3. Regulatory conformance (audit 2)
   - 24 mandatory French clauses
   - E-reporting B2C, intracom B2B, payments
   - GDPR: register of processing, DPO, sub-processing

4. Security (audit 3)
   - RGS** or qualified e-IDAS certificate
   - DRP + RPO 4 h / RTO 24 h
   - Annual penetration test by CESTI

Validity: 36 months renewable. Light annual audit.

Comparison table of leading PDPs

Non-exhaustive list, alphabetical order, status as of 1 May 2026. For the up-to-date official list, consult the DGFiP directory (link at bottom of page).

Selection criteria

Choosing a PDP is not trivial: it is a long partnership, with high migration cost if you change. The seven key criteria:

• Existing ERP integration. Sage, Cegid, Pennylane, Tiime and Iliad have the advantage of a native connector in their tool — default choice for their respective customers.
• Volume and throughput. For a large enterprise (> 1 M invoices/year), favour Basware, OpenText, Esker, Cegedim, Generix — capable of absorbing end-of-month peaks without degradation.
• PEPPOL AS4 interop. Mandatory for EU flows (Belgium, Germany, Nordics). Verify the PDP also holds a valid OpenPEPPOL AS4 certificate, not just the French registration.
• Legacy EDI. For industrials with historic EDIFACT INVOIC D96A or X12 810, favour PDPs with a native EDI gateway (Generix, Cegedim, OpenText, Basware).
• Legal archive. All PDPs must provide 10-year archive, but some additionally certify NF Z42-013 (strengthened evidentiary value) — useful in URSSAF or DGFiP audits.
• Cost. Volume-based (per emitted/received invoice) or monthly flat-fee model. Compare the total cost over 36 months (registration + ERP migration + recurring cost).
• Resilience. Withdrawal of a PDP registration triggers a forced client migration within 90 days. Favour financially solid operators (capital, tenure) or those backed by a large group.

Common pitfalls

• OD vs PDP. An Opérateur de Dématérialisation (OD) is not a PDP: it is a technical intermediary that relies on a third-party PDP or the PPF for transmission. Verify the exact status before signing.
• Partial registration. A registration may be limited to certain scopes (B2B only, no e-reporting). Read the registration order to verify coverage.
• Two PDPs for one SIRET. The PPF directory only accepts one reception PDP per SIRET. If the recipient has declared two, the last registered wins — risk of lost invoices.
• PEPPOL migration. A French PEPPOL identifier (schemeID 0009 SIRET) is bound to a single PDP at a time; changing PDP requires a PEPPOL deregistration / reregistration.

Cross-links

• France hub — full e-invoicing mandate
• PPF — architecture and API
• E-reporting: flows and frequencies
• 10 lifecycle statuses
• 2026-2027 timeline
• PEPPOL — open EU interop network
• DGFiP — official PDP directory
• Decree 2022-1299 of 7 October 2022 (Legifrance)