If you've ever done business with a French company, you've indirectly interacted with BODACC — even if you've never heard of it. BODACC is the official French register where every significant corporate legal event is published. Most importantly for creditors, it's where all French company insolvencies are publicly announced.

For foreign companies doing business with French partners, understanding BODACC isn't optional — it's essential for protecting your receivables.

1. BODACC: definition and purpose

BODACC stands for Bulletin Officiel des Annonces Civiles et Commerciales — the Official Bulletin of Civil and Commercial Announcements. It is the French government's official gazette for all commercial and civil legal notices.

BODACC is published by the Direction de l'Information Légale et Administrative (DILA), a government agency under the Prime Minister's office. Its data is freely available on bodacc.fr and via a public open data API.

The legal basis for BODACC dates back to the 19th century — it is the mechanism by which French law ensures that corporate events (including insolvencies) are publicly "opposable" — meaning they have legal effect against third parties, including foreign creditors, from the date of publication.

2. What does BODACC publish?

BODACC covers several categories of corporate announcements:

CategoryExamplesRelevant to creditors?
Collective proceedings
(Procédures collectives)		Insolvency openings, liquidations, reorganisations✅ Critical
Sales and transfers
(Ventes et cessions)		Business sales, asset transfers⚠️ Important
Incorporations
(Immatriculations)		New company registrationsLow relevance
Modifications
(Modifications diverses)		Name changes, address changes, share capital changesMedium relevance
Deregistrations
(Radiations)		Company dissolutions⚠️ Important
Account filings
(Dépôts des comptes)		Annual accounts depositedLow relevance

For creditors, the Procédures collectives (collective/insolvency proceedings) category is by far the most important. This is where sauvegarde, redressement judiciaire, and liquidation judiciaire openings are published.

3. BODACC and insolvency: the key connection

Under French law (Article L.621-8 and related articles), within 15 days of a commercial court issuing an insolvency judgment, an extract must be published in the BODACC. This publication serves two critical functions:

  1. Public notice: all creditors are deemed to have been informed, even if they didn't read the BODACC
  2. Start of deadlines: the creditor claim filing deadline (déclaration de créances) begins from this publication date
⚠️ Legal consequence The French courts have consistently ruled that BODACC publication constitutes sufficient notice to all creditors, including foreign ones. "I didn't know" is not a valid defence for missing the deadline. The law assumes you are monitoring the register.

Each BODACC insolvency notice typically contains:

4. How big is the problem? 2024 numbers

67,830
Insolvencies published in 2024 (record high)
~945
New BODACC insolvency entries per business day
3.2M
Total insolvency records in BODACC database

The 2024 figure of 67,830 insolvencies represents a significant increase from previous years and reflects ongoing economic pressure on French businesses following the withdrawal of COVID-era state support. Sectors particularly affected include:

For any company with meaningful exposure to French suppliers or customers, the probability of encountering at least one insolvency in a given year is non-negligible.

5. How to monitor BODACC effectively

There are four main approaches to staying on top of BODACC publications:

Option 1: Manual search on bodacc.fr (free but impractical)

You can search bodacc.fr by company name or SIREN number and view all publications. For a single company, this is feasible. For 20+ partners, it becomes impractical — and the French-only interface creates a barrier for non-francophone teams.

Option 2: BODACC free email alerts (free but limited)

bodacc.fr allows you to set up keyword alerts: enter a company name and receive daily emails if that string appears in new publications. The limitations:

Option 3: Enterprise credit monitoring (comprehensive but expensive)

Services like Coface, Euler Hermes, and Altares provide comprehensive credit monitoring including BODACC tracking. These services are designed for large companies with €500–5,000/month budgets.

Option 4: BODACC Creditor Alerts (purpose-built for foreign creditors)

Our service was built specifically to fill the gap between the free BODACC alerts and expensive enterprise solutions:

💡 Key takeaway Any company doing meaningful business with French partners should have a BODACC monitoring solution in place. The question is not whether you need one — it's which approach fits your size and budget.