Decree No. 2025-840 of 22 August 2025 on the protection of information relating to the domicile of certain natural persons listed in the commercial register, published in the Official Journal on 24 August 2025 (text 2) enables individuals who are directors or shareholders/partners with unlimited liability of legal entities listed in the commercial register to opt to hide their personal addresses from the public.
The registry is now required to carry out this procedure automatically. In practice, personal addresses may no longer appear on Kbis certificates, in the National Business Register (RNE), or in the Register of Beneficial Owners (RBE).
Persons concerned. The 25 August 2025 decree allows the individuals mentioned in Article R 123-54 of the French Commercial Code to request that their personal addresses be concealed. These individuals are:
- managers, chairmen, managing directors, deputy managing directors, members of the executive board (directoire), the chairman of the executive board and the sole managing director;
- shareholders & partners as well as third parties with the power to direct, manage or commit the company on a regular basis;
- directors and chairmen of the board of directors (conseil d’administration), chairmen of the supervisory board (conseil de surveillance), members of the supervisory board and auditors.
Procedure (Art. R 123-54-1 new of the French Commercial Code). The above-mentioned persons must submit their request to the guichet unique. Upon receipt of the request, a receipt will be issued to the applicant. The registrar will process this request within five business days (“cinq jours francs ouvrables”) of receiving it. If the registrar fails to comply with the request within this timeframe, the applicant may refer the matter to the judge responsible for supervising the register. Requests for the confidentiality of information relating to individuals’ personal addresses shall be kept as proof for one year.
If the request relates to a document or item referred to in Article R 123-102, a copy of the relevant document or item must be provided, with the applicant’s personal address blacked out. The registrar shall publish this copy in place of the original document, which shall be kept as proof.
This information may nevertheless be accessible to certain individuals (Art. R 123-54-2 new of the French Commercial Code). There are certain persons, authorities or bodies that still have access to information about the personal residence of individuals, as well as documents and records that contain this information, notably authorities, administrations, organisations and professions mentioned in points a to e of 2° of Article L 123-53, as well as those mentioned in Article R 123-318 (with the exception of point 10). The company’s legal representatives, its shareholders & partners as well as the creditors of the individuals concerned may also be disclosed this information, which is confidential to the public, provided that the latter demonstrate that they hold claims against them arising from the exercise by those individuals of their corporate appointment (mandat social).
This decree came into force on 25 August 2025. Its publication was eagerly awaited, and ANSA consulted several government representatives on the matter. Directive 2017/1132 of 14 June 2017 relating to certain aspects of company law does not require the disclosure of directors’ or managers’ personal addresses – a practice followed by many European countries.
