E-Invoicing in France: Updates on the B2B and B2C Mandate

France is making steady progress on its digital invoicing reform, despite a shift in the official timeline. Originally planned for 2024, the mandatory B2B and B2C e-invoicing will now begin in September 2026, giving businesses more time to prepare, but also raising expectations for compliance. With pilot programs underway and new legislation taking shape, the countdown has truly begun.

This article unpacks the latest developments and what your business needs to know.

A Quick Recap: The B2B E-Invoicing and E-Reporting Mandate

This reform is part of France’s effort to digitise and standardise the way businesses issue and process invoices. The goal is to:

Reduce manual paperwork

Minimise error and fraud

Lower administrative costs

Close the country’s VAT gap

The legal framework is based on Ordinance No. 2021-1190 and Article 26 of the 2022 Amending Finance Law. Under this framework, all businesses registered for VAT in France will be required to issue and receive invoices electronically for domestic B2B transactions. These businesses will also be required to report key e-invoicing transactional data to France’s e-invoicing platform, the Portail Public de Facturation (PPF).

This reform builds on the foundation already laid by Chorus Pro, France’s mandatory platform for B2G invoicing, and will eventually apply to all business transactions, B2B and B2C alike. Invoices will be transmitted in a structured format such as UBL or CII and delivered to the buyer as a hybrid PDF using the Factur-X format.

What’s New Since January 2025

The July 2024 go-live was postponed, with a new phased timeline announced:

Pilot phase: Started in early 2025

Large & medium-sized businesses: Mandate begins September 2026

Small & micro-businesses: Mandate begins September 2027

These changes are being introduced through the 2026 Finance Bill, which is currently under review. Alongside this, the French government is collaborating with key industry groups and service providers to ensure that the the technical and legal framework are both robust and realistic. A national standardisation commission has been established to refine technical requirements and ensure consistent implementation across sectors.

AFNOR: The Commission Leading the Technical Work

The French General Directorate of Public Finance (DGFiP) – the French tax authority, has tasked AFNOR, France’s national standardisation body, with leading the technical development of the e-invoicing infrastructure to ensure structure and consistency of the rollout

AFNOR’s commission includes a cross-section of tax professionals, software vendors, service providers, and industry stakeholders. These groups are focused on addressing key challenges such as:

data format specifications

e-invoicing use cases

API interoperability between businesses and certified platforms

The DGFiP is fully funding AFNOR’s commission, which allows all interested parties to participate freely. The commission held its first plenary session in April 2025, with working group outputs expected during the summer.

Inside the E-Invoicing Pilot Program

France’s e-invoicing pilot phase, launched in early 2025, is testing the full e-invoicing ecosystem in real-world scenarios. This includes the interaction between the Portail Public de Facturation (PPF), Partner Dematerialisation Platforms (PDPs), and volunteer businesses across various sectors.

The initial testing began with a small number of service providers and companies, focusing on technical connectivity, invoice exchange, and data directory updates. PDPs were required to connect with the central business directory (Annuaire), ensuring accurate invoice routing and addressing.

Later in 2025, the pilot will expand to cover interoperability testing. This phase will assess how different platforms exchange e-invoicing and e-reporting data and will focus on validating systems for error handling and data accuracy. Peppol, a widely used interoperability network, is expected to play a key role in these tests.

Early 2026 will mark the final stretch of the pilot. Businesses and service providers will conduct full end-to-end testing of invoice exchange, tax data reporting, and directory updates. This phase will also include a trial run of the “concentrator,” which processes and validates data for VAT tracking. This final push is designed to give all participants the opportunity to resolve any remaining issues before the legal obligations take effect.

The Final Transition to Mandatory E-Invoicing

After the pilot concludes mid-2026, the DGFiP will adjust the framework based on pilot feedbackand ramp up communication with businesses to ensure everyone is ready for the mandate. Service providers will also be finalising their systems, documentation, and processes to meet the technical and legal requirements. From September 2026, large and medium businesses must be fully operational within the e-invoicing framework. Smaller businesses will have until September 2027 to follow suit.

What This Means for Your Business

This reform isn’t just an administrative shift, it’s a complete rethink of how invoicing works in France. If your company is VAT-registered in France or trades with French entities, early preparation is critical.

Understanding technical specifications, integrating with the right platforms, testing invoice flows, and updating internal processes can make a real difference to how smoothly your business transitions when the deadline arrives.

How eezi by VAT IT Can Help

As a certified Partner Dematerialisation Platform (PDP), eezi, powered by VAT IT, is part of the official pilot program. Our technology and team are directly involved in shaping the future of e-invoicing in France.

We’re here to ensure you’re not only compliant, but able to benefit from greater efficiency and transparency. If you’d like to join the pilot as a volunteer business or simply want to understand how the changes could affect your operations, we’d love to hear from you.