Postponed by 18 months by the public authorities, the obligation to use electronic invoicing for BtoB transactions will come into force on 1 September 2026. This gives businesses extra time to identify an eligible invoicing solution provider.
As a key measure in the government's drive to digitally transform France's economic fabric, it has been decided to extend electronic invoicing to all VAT-registered businesses by 2022. It is designed to simplify the administrative life of businesses, reduce payment times and combat VAT fraud.
The system is based on the creation of an ecosystem of partner dematerialisation platforms (PDP), publishers of electronic invoicing solutions who must obtain the approval of the DGFIP.
| Requirements | What are the PDP's obligations in terms of securing company data? |
|---|---|
| RGPD | The publisher will have to produce a document setting out precisely the means implemented to ensure the security of personal data in application of the RGPD. |
| ISO 27001 | The platform will have to be ISO/IEC/27001 certified for all the infrastructures, tools, services and IT organisational elements that contribute to carrying out its activity. |
| EU location | The solution must be operated in a Member State of the European Union and must guarantee that there is no transfer of data outside the Union. |
| SecNumCloud | If a hosting provider is used, the publisher must provide the SecNumCloud qualification decision issued by ANSSI. |
"The adoption of electronic invoicing is a major milestone for French businesses. The government's decision to require secure hosting, as evidenced by SecNumCloud qualification, underlines the growing importance of sovereignty issues for their critical data.
The obligation to issue electronic invoices will come into force :
- 1 September 2026 for large and medium-sized companies;
- 1 September 2027 for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro-businesses.
This timetable also applies to the transmission of company transaction data