Section 4: Business secrecy.

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R463-13R463-14R463-15R463-15-1

Article R463-13

French Commercial codeIn force
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Updated 5 Nov 2023

For the purposes of Article L. 463-4, when a person requests protection of business confidentiality with regard to items communicated by him to the Autorité de la concurrence or seized from him by the latter, he shall indicate, either by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, or via a secure electronic document exchange platform, for each item of information, document or part of a document in question, the purpose of his request and the reasons for it. It shall provide separately a non-confidential version and a summary of each of these items. The application must reach the Authority within one month of the date on which the material was obtained by the Authority. In urgent cases, this time limit may be reduced by the General Rapporteur, in particular to allow the Authority to consider an application for interim measures, but may not be less than forty-eight hours. In this case, the request for protective measures may be submitted by any means.

When a person communicates information to the Minister responsible for the economy or when the latter seizes information from that person in the context of an investigation relating to Articles L. 420-1, L. 420-2, L. 420-2-1, L. 420-2-2 and L. 420-5, this person is invited to indicate by letter, within one month of the date on which the said information was obtained by the Minister, that he is requesting protection of business secrecy, without prejudice to his right to invoke the provisions of Article L. 463-4 before the Competition Authority. This letter is attached to any referral to the Competition Authority.

When the investigation of the case by the Autorité de la concurrence reveals that information, documents or parts of documents that may involve business secrecy could not be the subject of an application for protection by a person likely to rely on such secrecy, the general rapporteur invites that person to submit, if he so wishes, an application in the form and within the time limits mentioned in the first paragraph in order to benefit from business secrecy protection.

Mariela Petrova

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Common Questions

Working with a corporate lawyer in France — Q&A

Any time a strategic decision changes how the company is owned, governed or contractually bound — incorporation, fundraising, M&A, restructuring, shareholder agreements, or major commercial contracts. Earlier engagement always costs less than later remediation.

A notary (notaire) is a public officer who authenticates specific deeds (mainly real-estate transfers and certain family-law acts). A corporate lawyer (avocat) advises on strategy, negotiates and drafts company documents, and represents you in disputes. The two roles complement rather than overlap.

Yes — most of our clients are foreign suppliers, investors or holding entities. We bridge the gap between French law and your home jurisdiction's expectations and deliver everything bilingually.

The SAS (Société par Actions Simplifiée) is the default choice for most international structures: flexible governance, single shareholder allowed, no minimum capital, and works cleanly with foreign holding entities. We assess SARL, SA, SCI on the merits when the situation calls for it.

Yes — communications with a French avocat are protected by the secret professionnel (Article 66-5 of the Law of 31 December 1971). This protection is broader than the common-law attorney-client privilege and applies to written and oral exchanges.

We work on fixed fees for clearly scoped engagements (incorporation, contract drafting, audits) and on monthly retainers for ongoing advisory. Hourly billing is the exception, not the default. You always know the cost before work starts.

Typical timeline is 2–3 weeks from KYC kick-off to RCS registration, assuming standard documentation. Holding-company structures, foreign-shareholder identification or in-kind contributions can extend this — we flag the gating items at the first meeting.

Absolutely. We routinely coordinate with your in-house counsel, expert-comptable or notaire — pragmatic collaboration is the norm, not the exception. We send them everything they need to do their part without duplicating work.

Mariela Petrova

Mariela Petrova

Avocate au Barreau de Paris

Toque #C2396

15+ Years In Corporate Practice

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Communications protected by professional secrecy — secret professionnel de l'avocat, Article 66-5 of the Law of 31 December 1971.

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