The “Mentions légales” (legal notices) page is often the last thing people think about when building a website in France, and the first one they fill in by copying someone else's. That is a mistake: the mandatory information is not the same for a sole trader, a company, a craftsperson or a lawyer. And the texts have changed recently.
Law no. 2024-449 of 21 May 2024, known as the SREN law, reorganised the French law on confidence in the digital economy (LCEN): the identification obligations for website publishers, long cited as “article 6 III of the LCEN”, now sit in article 1-1, in force since 23 May 2024. Many templates and online generators still cite the old reference. Here is the current list, text by text.
Three sets of rules overlap
There is no single “legal notices law”. For a business website in France, three sets of rules add up:
- Article 1-1 of the LCEN, which applies to anyone whose activity is publishing an online public communication service, meaning a website accessible to the public.
- Article 19 of the LCEN, which applies to anyone carrying out electronic commerce. Importantly, article 14 of the same law defines this broadly. It covers the remote supply of goods or services, but specifies that services such as providing information online and commercial communications also fall within electronic commerce, even when those receiving them do not pay for them. A showcase site presenting your services is therefore covered, even without online sales.
- The French Commercial Code, for businesses registered with the trade and companies register (RCS) and for sole traders.
On top of that come information obligations that are not “legal notices” strictly speaking but often sit on the same page or right next to it: personal data, cookies, consumer mediator, terms and conditions of sale.
The common base: what article 1-1 requires of everyone
Article 1-1 of the LCEN requires the following information to be made available to the public, “in an open standard”:
- For a natural person: surname, first names, home address and telephone number and, if they are subject to registration with the trade and companies register or the national business register as a craft business, their registration number.
- For a legal person: company name, registered office, telephone number and, for businesses subject to the same registration, their registration number, share capital and registered office address.
- The name of the publication director (or co-director) and, where applicable, the editor-in-chief.
- The name or company name, address and telephone number of the hosting provider.
- Where applicable, the name and address of anyone who, even free of charge, stores data they process directly as part of publishing the service.
Two omissions come up very often. The first is the hosting provider's telephone number, which many templates leave out even though the text expressly requires it. The second is the publication director: in a small business it is usually the manager or the entrepreneur, but they must be named.
Article 1-1 makes an exception for people who publish a site in a non-professional capacity: they may remain anonymous and publish only their host's details, provided they have given their identity to the host. This exception does not apply to a business website.
What article 19 adds for any commercial activity
Article 19 of the LCEN requires “easy, direct and permanent access” for customers to the following information, some of which overlaps with article 1-1:
- For a natural person, surname and first names; for a legal person, company name.
- The address where it is established, its email address, and telephone details that actually make it possible to get in touch.
- If subject to registration with the trade and companies register or the trades register, its registration number, share capital and registered office address.
- If subject to VAT and identified by an individual number, its intra-community VAT number.
- If its activity requires an authorisation, the name and address of the authority that granted it.
- If it is a member of a regulated profession, a reference to the applicable professional rules, its professional title, the Member State where it was granted and the name of the professional body with which it is registered.
The same article requires that whenever a price is mentioned, even without an offer to contract, it must be stated “clearly and unambiguously”, specifying in particular whether taxes and delivery costs are included. If you display a rate on a showcase site, this rule applies.
The list by legal status
Micro-entrepreneur and sole trader (entrepreneur individuel)
- Surname and first names, followed or preceded by “entrepreneur individuel” or the initials “EI”. Article R526-27 of the Commercial Code requires sole traders to use a name incorporating their own name immediately preceded or followed by these words or initials on their professional documents and correspondence. The official Entreprendre.service-public.gouv.fr page on mandatory website notices repeats this requirement.
- Home address (the term used by article 1-1) and place of business (article 19).
- Telephone number and email address.
- Registration number with the RCS if you are a trader, or with the national business register as a craft business.
- Intra-community VAT number, if you are registered for VAT.
- Name of the publication director (usually you).
- Name, address and telephone number of the host.
Company (SARL, SAS, SASU, EURL…)
- Company name and registered office address.
- Telephone number and email address.
- RCS registration number and share capital.
- Intra-community VAT number, where applicable.
- Name of the publication director.
- Name, address and telephone number of the host.
For businesses registered with the RCS, article R123-237 of the Commercial Code adds a website-specific requirement: the site must show the mention “RCS” followed by the name of the town of the registry, as well as several of the details required on business documents, including the company's unique identification number (SIREN) and the location of its registered office. Breaching this article is punishable by the fine for fourth-class petty offences.
Craftsperson (artisan)
Same base as a sole trader or a company depending on your legal form, with your registration number in the national business register as a craft business: this is expressly referred to in article 1-1.
Regulated profession
Lawyer, chartered accountant, architect, doctor, surveyor and so on: in addition to the base for your form of practice, article 19 requires a reference to the applicable professional rules, your professional title, the Member State that granted it, and the name of the professional body you are registered with. Your professional body often publishes its own recommendations on online communication: check them, as they may go further than the law.
Activity requiring an authorisation
If your activity can only be carried out with an authorisation granted by an authority, article 19 requires you to state the name and address of the authority that granted it.
Information to place next to the legal notices
Personal data
As soon as your site collects data (contact form, quote request, newsletter, customer account), the GDPR requires you to inform people at the time of collection: identity of the controller, purposes, legal basis, recipients, retention period, individuals' rights and the right to lodge a complaint with the CNIL (the French data protection authority), as well as any transfers outside the European Union. This usually takes the form of a privacy policy, plus a short notice under each form.
Think about transfers: if your form goes through an email-sending service or a tool hosted outside the European Union, it must be mentioned.
Cookies
The CNIL points out that article 82 of the French Data Protection Act requires prior consent before cookies are stored or read, except for certain exempt trackers: authentication, security, shopping basket, interface personalisation (language for example), load balancing, storing the user's choices, and certain audience measurement tools that meet specific conditions. When consent is required, users must be able to refuse as easily as they accept.
In practice, a showcase site that only uses exempt trackers does not need a consent banner. As soon as you add an advertising tool, certain sharing buttons or non-exempt audience measurement, you need one. In every case, the trackers used must be explained.
Consumer mediator
This is the obligation most often forgotten by service providers. Every consumer has the right to use a consumer mediator free of charge (article L612-1 of the French Consumer Code), and every professional must provide the contact details of the mediator(s) it falls under (article L616-1). Article R616-1 specifies that this information must appear visibly and legibly on the website, in the terms and conditions of sale or service and on order forms, together with the mediator's website address.
If you work with private individuals, even without selling online, this applies to you. Failing to provide this information can lead to an administrative fine of up to 3,000 euros for a natural person and 15,000 euros for a legal person (article L641-1).
Terms and conditions of sale
If you sell online to consumers, terms and conditions of sale become essential, with a great deal of mandatory information and, since 19 June 2026, a new withdrawal function. It is a subject in its own right, covered in our article on the legal obligations of an online store.
What is at stake
Article 1-2 of the LCEN punishes with one year's imprisonment and a 75,000-euro fine any natural person, or manager of a legal person, whose activity is publishing an online public communication service and who fails to comply with sections I and II of article 1-1. Legal persons can be held criminally liable: they face a fine whose maximum, under article 131-38 of the French Criminal Code, is five times that for natural persons, i.e. 375,000 euros, plus certain additional penalties, including a ban on carrying out the activity concerned for up to five years.
These are maximums: above all, they show that lawmakers do not consider this page a detail. Other breaches carry their own penalties (a petty-offence fine for article R123-237 of the Commercial Code, an administrative fine for the mediator, GDPR penalties for personal data).
Where and how to display them
Article 1-1 refers to making the information available “in an open standard” and article 19 to “easy, direct and permanent access”. In practice, this means a dedicated page, in text (not an image, which screen readers and search engines cannot read), reachable from every page of the site, usually through a footer link. Contact and identification details must be real and up to date: a phone number that never answers does not meet the requirement for telephone details that “actually make it possible to get in touch”.
The most common mistakes
- Copying another site's notices: you inherit its status, its host, sometimes even its VAT number. Every line must match your own situation.
- Leaving your web provider as publication director: the publisher of the site, meaning you, is responsible for its content.
- Forgetting to update the page after moving premises, changing legal status (from micro-enterprise to company, for example) or changing host.
- Displaying the information as an image: it becomes unreadable for screen readers, impossible to copy, and is no longer “in an open standard” as the text requires.
- Hiding the page several clicks deep or in a secondary menu, when the law requires easy, direct and permanent access.
The checklist to run on your site today
- Name or company name, with “EI” if you are a sole trader.
- Address (home or registered office as applicable), a phone number that answers, and an email address.
- Registration number (RCS with the registry town, or national business register for craft businesses) and SIREN if you are registered.
- Share capital if you are a company.
- Intra-community VAT number if you have one.
- Publication director.
- Host: name, address and phone number.
- Information specific to regulated professions or activities requiring authorisation, where applicable.
- An up-to-date privacy policy, a notice under each form, and an explanation of cookies.
- Consumer mediator contact details if you work with private individuals.
- Up-to-date legal references: if your page still cites “article 6 III of the LCEN”, it dates from before May 2024.
Planning a showcase website or want to review your current one? Get in touch: the first conversation is free.
Sources
- Law no. 2004-575 of 21 June 2004 (LCEN), articles 1-1 and 1-2 (Légifrance, in French)
- LCEN, article 14 and article 19 (Légifrance, in French)
- Commercial Code, articles R123-237 et seq. (Légifrance, in French)
- Commercial Code, article R526-27 (Légifrance, in French)
- Consumer Code, article L616-1, article R616-1 and article L641-1 (Légifrance, in French)
- Cookies and other trackers: what does the law say? (CNIL, in French)
- Website: what are the mandatory notices? (Entreprendre.service-public.gouv.fr, in French)
