France Completes E-Invoicing Regulatory Framework Ahead of September 2026 Launch

France has published the final pieces of secondary legislation needed to complete its e-invoicing reform, closing out the legal groundwork just weeks before the mandate’s first go-live date. Décret n° 2026-677 and its accompanying Arrêté, both dated July 27, 2026, appeared in the Official Journal on July 28, 2026, and took effect the following day. Together, they amend the founding texts of October 9, 2022 – as previously revised by Décret n° 2024-266 of March 25, 2024 – and bring existing secondary legislation into alignment with Article 123 of the 2026 Finance Law.

With these two texts in place, the legislative layer of the French e-invoicing framework is now finalized in time for the Wave 1 mandate, which takes effect on September 1, 2026. Much of the content formalizes matters that, until now, had only been addressed in technical specifications or left unresolved since the 2026 Finance Law took effect in February.

What the New Documents Cover

The Decree and Order touch on several areas of the reform:

• End of the PPF, full shift to Approved Platforms: The public invoicing portal (PPF) is formally retired as an invoice-exchange route – a role it had already been losing since October 2024 – and all e-invoicing flows must now pass exclusively through Approved Platforms, which interconnect via the central directory (annuaire central) that the PPF continues to operate.
• Format baseline alignment: The minimum format requirements are aligned around the EN16931 and EXTENDED-CTC-FR profiles, consistent with standard XP Z12-012. The texts also explicitly reference XP Z12-014, covering business use cases, and XP Z12-013, covering standardized APIs.
• Platform mobility rules: The procedure for switching between Approved Platforms is now fully codified, including the required content of the formal agreement between parties, binding deadlines for the switching process, and a minimum one-year period during which the outgoing platform must continue providing service.
• Codification of existing practice: Several practices already circulating through non-legislative guidance – including the accord formel framework – are now written into the legal text itself.
• New surveillance audit: Approved Platforms face a new audit requirement partway through their accreditation cycle, in addition to the audit already required at initial registration and at each three-yearly renewal.
• Registration and data field adjustments: Various changes are made to PA registration requirements and to the data fields required on invoices and in e-reporting submissions.

Of these changes, the mid-cycle audit stands out as the most substantive new obligation, introducing a recurring compliance checkpoint for Approved Platforms between their initial registration audit and each subsequent renewal.

Context of the Reform

The Decree and Order complete the legal basis for a reform that requires companies to route domestic B2B invoices through an Approved Platform rather than the retired PPF, with the Central Directory (the PPF’s successor) now officially launched and registering a rapidly growing number of companies ahead of the September go-live. Approved Platforms submit and receive invoices through this Directory on behalf of the taxpayers that appoint them.

The format alignment addressed in the new texts also reflects France’s recognition of structured invoice formats – including Peppol, Factur-X, UBL 2.1, and UN/CEFACT CII – in place of traditional unstructured formats such as paper, basic PDF, or email attachments.

There’s more you should know about e-invoicing in France – learn more about the new and upcoming regulations.