Legal notice for a website in France: the complete 2026 list (and the penalties)

If your legal notice page still cites “article 6-III of the LCEN”, it is more than two years out of date. Since the SREN law of 21 May 2024, article 6 of the LCEN (« loi pour la confiance dans l’économie numérique », France’s Law on Confidence in the Digital Economy) only deals with internet access providers, hosts and platforms. The duty to identify yourself moved to article 1-1, and its penalty to article 1-2: still up to one year in prison and a €75,000 fine for the publisher of a business website that does not say who it is. Here is the up-to-date list of what French law requires in the « mentions légales » (legal notice), by business type, and what to write line by line.

Do I need a legal notice on my website in France?

Yes, for any website published in a professional capacity, whatever its size: a craftsperson’s showcase site, a freelance photographer’s portfolio, a consultant’s blog, a Shopify store, or the site of a SASU (single-shareholder simplified joint-stock company) or a non-profit association. Only a private individual publishing in a non-professional capacity can stay anonymous, provided they have given their identity to their host.

There is no turnover or traffic threshold: the text covers anyone who publishes a website or an app accessible to the public.

Three practical consequences:

• A phone number is mandatory for every professional publisher, individual or company. A contact form or an email address is not enough under article 1-1.
• “In an open standard” means a format whose technical specifications are public, with no restriction on access or implementation (LCEN, art. 4): a text-based HTML page meets that test beyond argument.
• A non-profit association is a legal person: name, registered office, phone number, and its legal representative as publication director. The exemption in II covers someone publishing “in a non-professional capacity”: a personal blog. As soon as your blog presents your services or earns you money, treat it as a business website.

Is it still article 6-III of the LCEN in 2026?

No. Identifying the publisher now falls under article 1-1 of the LCEN, created by article 48 of Law n° 2024-449 of 21 May 2024 and in force since 23 May 2024; the penalty is in article 1-2. Online shops add the information in article 19, and registered businesses the information in article R123-237 of the « Code de commerce » (Commercial Code, “C. com.” in the tables below).

You can check the old numbering on the version of article 6 in force until 12 May 2024. One change is already scheduled: from 1 January 2027, article 19 will refer, for the VAT number, to the « code des impositions sur les biens et services » (Code of taxes on goods and services, art. L. 215-27) instead of the « code général des impôts » (General Tax Code). What you display does not change.

What must a micro-entrepreneur or sole trader put in their legal notice?

Your surname and first names, preceded or followed by “entrepreneur individuel” or “EI” (sole trader), your home address, phone number, your registration number with the RCS (« registre du commerce et des sociétés », the Trade and Companies Register) or, as a craftsperson, with the national business register if you are required to register, the name of the publication director (you) and your host’s details. If you are registered with the RCS, add your SIREN (company registration number) and “RCS” followed by the city of the registry.

The “EI” label comes from article R526-27 of the Commercial Code: since 15 May 2022, a sole trader trades under a name “incorporating their surname or name in use, immediately preceded or followed by the words ‘entrepreneur individuel’ or the initials ‘EI’”, on all their business documents and correspondence. So “Camille Martin EI, photographer” on your website, your quotes and your emails.

Article R123-237 of the Commercial Code adds, for a business registered with the RCS (a micro-entrepreneur running a commercial business, for example): “Any registered person shall also state on its website the letters RCS followed by the name of the city where the registry in which it is registered is located”, together with its unique identification number (the SIREN), its registered office and, for a sole trader, the trading name with “EI”.

A micro-entrepreneur in a liberal profession, such as a consultant, who is neither a trader nor a craftsperson, is not expressly covered by article 1-1 or article R123-237 for their number. Show your SIREN anyway: it costs nothing and reassures clients.

What must a French company (SAS, SASU, SARL, EURL) put in its legal notice?

Company name and legal form, share capital, registered office address, phone number, RCS number (“RCS” followed by the city of the registry and the SIREN), the name of the publication director and the host’s details. A company that sells online also adds its email address and its EU VAT number.

The legal form does not come from the LCEN but from article R123-238 of the Commercial Code: a company’s documents intended for third parties, “in particular letters, invoices, announcements and various publications”, state its name “immediately and legibly preceded or followed” by its legal form (SAS, SARL…) and, for a SARL or a company limited by shares, the amount of its share capital.

For a consulting SASU:

What extra information does an e-commerce site need in France?

If your site sells or offers goods or services at a distance, article 19 of the LCEN adds an email address, the address where you are established and your EU VAT number if you have one. If you sell to consumers, the « Code de la consommation » (Consumer Code, “C. consom.”) also requires your consumer mediator’s details.

The scope is wide. Article 14 defines e-commerce as “the economic activity by which a person offers or provides, at a distance and by electronic means, the supply of goods or services”, and includes commercial communications in it, even free ones. An online store is covered, and so, very probably, is a coach’s website that sells sessions online.

Article 19 requires “easy, direct and permanent access using an open standard” to this information, contact phone details “allowing effective contact” with you, and any price stated “clearly and unambiguously”, specifying whether taxes and delivery costs are included.

Then the mediator. Article R616-1 of the Consumer Code requires a business selling to consumers to show its consumer mediator’s contact details “visibly and legibly on its website”, in its terms and conditions and on its order forms, along with the mediator’s website address. However, the EU online dispute resolution (ODR) platform was shut down on 20 July 2025 by Regulation (EU) 2024/3228: remove any link to it.

A legal notice does not replace your terms of sale or the withdrawal button.

What does a regulated profession add to its legal notice?

A lawyer, chartered accountant or architect offering services online also states their professional title, the country where it was obtained, the professional body they are registered with and a reference to the applicable professional rules. An activity subject to an authorisation scheme states the name and address of the authority that granted it.

These are points 5° and 6° of article 19 of the LCEN. Your professional body may require more: check its rules.

flowchart TD
  A{"Published in a professional capacity?"} -->|No| B["Anonymity possible: host’s name and address"]
  A -->|Yes| C{"Company or sole trader?"}
  C -->|Company| D["Name, legal form, capital, office, RCS and SIREN"]
  C -->|Sole trader or micro| E["Names, EI label, home address, RCS or craft register no."]
  D --> F["Everyone: phone, publication director, host"]
  E --> F
  F --> G{"Do you sell or offer online?"}
  G -->|Yes| H["Plus: email, VAT no., mediator, clear prices"]
  G -->|No| I{"Regulated profession?"}
  H --> I
  I -->|Yes| J["Plus: title, professional body, professional rules"]

Which host should I name on Shopify, Wix, WordPress.com or OVH?

The host is the provider that stores and serves your site: the platform for a hosted, ready-made service, or your web host for a WordPress site you installed yourself. The law asks for its name, address and phone number.

These are the entities named in the platforms’ terms as of 7 October 2026; reread them once a year. The phone number is not always there: look for it in the platform’s legal notice or contact page, because the law requires it.

Two traps. Your domain name registrar is not necessarily your host: a domain bought from OVH that points to Shopify is hosted by Shopify. And if another company stores the data processed by your site, point 5° of article 1-1 also asks, “where applicable”, for its name and address.

Who is the publication director (« directeur de la publication »)?

For a sole trader, it is the sole trader in person. For a company or association, it is the legal representative: the president of an SAS or an association, the manager (« gérant ») of a SARL. They must be named, not just referred to by job title.

Under article 93-2 of Law n° 82-652 of 29 July 1982, when the service is provided by a legal person, the publication director is “the chair of the management board or board of directors, the manager or the legal representative, depending on the form of the legal person”; when provided by a natural person, “that natural person”. So the agency that built your site cannot take the role instead of the company’s director. If there is an editor-in-chief, add their name too.

Does a micro-entrepreneur have to publish their home address?

If they work from home, in practice yes: article 1-1 of the LCEN refers to the « domicile » (home address) of a publisher who is a natural person, and the anonymity exemption only applies to a non-professional publisher. To keep a private address off the page, you have to register the business at another address.

Opting out of public disclosure with Insee (the French statistics office; page in French) hides your details in the national business register and the « Annuaire des entreprises », the public business directory. Only a few items, such as the trading name and the town of the business address, stay public. But it does not exempt you from article 1-1 on your website.

The real options are those of « domiciliation » (registering a business address, in French): business premises, a coworking space, a business incubator or an approved domiciliation company (three-month minimum contract; in practice, Service-Public notes, these companies often turn down sole traders, micro-entrepreneurs in liberal professions included). No text expressly says whether a domiciliation address alone satisfies the “home address” requirement of article 1-1: if this matters to you, have your choice checked by a lawyer.

What are the most common legal notice mistakes?

The mistakes that expose you most take ten minutes to fix: no phone number, no host, no RCS number or SIREN, no “EI” label, out-of-date share capital, and a page nobody can find.

• The page nobody can find. A link buried in a mobile menu, or a page reachable only from the basket, does not give the “easy, direct and permanent access” that article 19 requires of an online shop. Put a “Mentions légales” link in the footer of every page.
• A missing or wrong host: the registrar instead of the host, “WordPress” for a site installed with a third-party web host, or a name with no address or phone number.
• Incomplete registration details: “SIRET: 123 456 789 00012” with no “RCS” and no registry city for a business registered with the RCS.
• Forgotten or outdated share capital after a capital increase.
• No “EI” label after a sole trader’s name.
• An anonymous publication director (“the management”) or one who is not the legal representative.
• A notice published as an image or scanned PDF: unreadable by screen readers and search engines, impossible to copy. Publish a text page.
• Outdated references: article 6-III of the LCEN, or a link to the EU online dispute resolution platform (closed since 20 July 2025) instead of your mediator.

What is the fine for not having a legal notice in France?

Failing to identify the publisher of a business website is a criminal offence: up to one year in prison and a €75,000 fine for an individual or the company’s director, up to €375,000 for a company. The Commercial Code items and the mediator carry their own, smaller fines.

The €375,000 comes from article 131-38 of the Criminal Code (five times the fine for an individual), and the ban and publication from points 2° and 9° of article 131-39. For the petty offence, the €750 cap is set by article 131-13 and multiplied by five for a company by article 131-41. These are maximums: the penalty actually handed down depends on the case.

The real-world risk is an inspection. In November 2023, the DGCCRF (in French) said it had inspected 9,182 websites since the start of the year: half had at least one irregularity, across all topics, a figure to take with caution since inspections were targeted or followed complaints. Among the non-compliant e-commerce sites, 2,267 had received a warning, 1,974 a compliance order and 242 an official offence report (press kit, in French, figures at 20 October 2023). “Absence of the trader’s identity” is among the breaches most often found. To see where French online shops stand, read our 2026 compliance study of French e-commerce sites.

The legal notice is not a matter for the CNIL (the French data protection authority). CNIL fines target personal data and cookies: your privacy policy and your cookie banner.

What does a compliant legal notice page look like?

A text page, linked from the footer of every page, that sets out in order the publisher, the publication director, the host and, for an online shop, the article 19 information. Here is an annotated template for a SASU selling online, with the variants for a sole trader. The visible labels are in French, ready for a French-facing site; the comments explain each line.

<h1>Mentions légales</h1>

<h2>Éditeur du site</h2>
<!-- Publisher. LCEN art. 1-1, I, 2°: company name, registered office, phone, registration no., share capital -->
<p>Atelier Lune, SASU au capital de 1 000 €<br>
<!-- C. com. R123-237: “RCS” + registry city + SIREN, registered office -->
RCS Lyon 123 456 789<br>
Siège social : 12 rue de l’Exemple, 69002 Lyon<br>
<!-- A number someone answers: required by art. 1-1 for every publisher -->
Téléphone : 04 00 00 00 00<br>
<!-- LCEN art. 19, 2° and 4°: email and VAT number, if you sell online -->
E-mail : [email protected]<br>
N° de TVA intracommunautaire : FR00 123456789</p>

<!-- Sole trader variant (art. 1-1, I, 1° and C. com. R526-27):
     Camille Martin EI, [home address or registered business address],
     phone, RCS no. or craft register (RNE) no. if you are required to register, SIREN recommended.
     No share capital. -->

<h2>Directeur de la publication</h2>
<!-- Publication director. Law 82-652 art. 93-2: the legal representative, by name -->
<p>Claire Durand, présidente</p>

<h2>Hébergement</h2>
<!-- Host. LCEN art. 1-1, I, 4°: the host’s name, address AND phone -->
<p>[Raison sociale de l’hébergeur], [adresse], [téléphone]</p>

<h2>Médiation de la consommation</h2>
<!-- Consumer mediation. C. consom. R616-1: mediator’s details and website, if you sell to consumers -->
<p>[Nom du médiateur], [adresse], [site internet du médiateur]</p>

<!-- Regulated profession (LCEN art. 19, 6°): title, country where obtained, professional body, professional rules.
     Activity under authorisation (art. 19, 5°): name and address of the authority. -->

<p>Mis à jour le 7 octobre 2026</p>

The law does not require an update date, but it shows the page is maintained. To check your current page, run it through the free legal notice checker: it finds the page from your homepage and flags each item it could not spot. It is an automated scan, so check the host’s address and phone number by eye.

What should I check before publishing my legal notice?

A complete page ticks every item below; the “Online shop”, “Selling to consumers” and “Regulated profession” lines only apply to the sites concerned.

For the full list of mandatory pages and documents for your business, see our guide to mandatory legal documents in France, or take the two-minute website compliance quiz. Our other free tools also check your cookies and, from your SIREN, your obligations.