The first steps of the one-stop shop for businesses

Since January 1^st, 2023, the electronic one-stop shop for business formalities replaces the various business formalities centers (CFE) for all business creation, modification or cessation formalities. The Commercial Code lists the various declarations that must be filed online on the one-stop shop website, including

• Registrations in the national register of companies (RNE);
• Registrations in the Trade and Companies Register (RCS), in the Special Register of Commercial Agents and, for individuals, in the Special Register of Sole Proprietorships with Limited Liability;
• Indication of the beneficial owners of legal persons ;
• Of any declaration or change in the officer or officers of corporations;
• Of any change, extension or partial cessation of the activities carried on;
• Any change in the operation of the business or its facilities;
• Any permanent cessation of activity, death and deregistration of natural persons;
• Any permanent cessation of activity, dissolution and liquidation, if applicable, and striking off of legal entities;
• Any declaration of existence to the tax services of the DGFiP and any request for affiliation to the Urssaf and social security funds.

Several organizations will receive the formalities, mainly the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), the clerks of the commercial courts and the judicial courts, the chambers of trades and crafts, the tax services of the DGFiP and the URSSAF. However, the implementation of the one-stop shop for businesses is already facing several major problems:

• Technical problems;
• Inaccessibility of the platform;
• Hacking;
• Hotline saturated.

  WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ENCOUNTER DIFFICULTIES ON THE ONE-STOP SHOP SITE? A derogatory procedure has been provided for in the event of serious difficulties in the operation of the one-stop shop in order to ensure continuity of service: this is the emergency procedure. The triggering of this emergency procedure is the responsibility of the strategic steering committee of the one-stop shop following a report by registrants of the temporary impossibility of carrying out any formality of declaration of creation, modification or cessation, or the transmission by a member of the strategic committee of such impossibility. In order for this procedure to be implemented, a serious difficulty must exist. This serious difficulty is only characterized if the following cumulative criteria are met:

• Inability to file due to general unavailability of the electronic one-stop shop or blockage of a particular type of formality;
• Lack of an alternative solution for filing applications through the one-stop shop;
• No resolution possible within 15 days of referral or transmission.

Within a maximum of 96 hours after receiving the alert, the strategic college decides to implement the emergency procedure. Its decision shall state:

• The type of formality concerned, specifying the event, the legal form, the activity and, if applicable, the profession concerned;
• Agencies responsible for ensuring continuity of service;
• The estimated time during which the rescue procedure will be implemented. Where the serious difficulty has not been resolved by the end of this period, the Strategic College may extend it for a further period which it shall determine.

The alert issued by the declarant interrupts the deadlines applicable to his formality.   WHAT TO DO AFTER THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS PROCEDURE? Once the notification has been made, the declarant must continue with the formalities with the organizations responsible for ensuring continuity of service, i.e. the former CFEs: Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), Chamber of Trades and Crafts, Clerk of the Courts of Commerce and the Courts of Justice, URSSAF, Chamber of Agriculture. In this case, the declaration is made via the company counter. The various information is then transmitted via an electronic form with the documents to the organizations responsible for ensuring the continuity of the service. The latter will then transmit, on the same day, the complete file including the information and documents to the various organizations (INPI, INSEE, registries, chambers of trade, etc.).   TO NOTE For all files transmitted to the CFE but not processed before December 31, 2022, a deadline of January 31, 2023 has been set so that the organizations in charge of ensuring the continuity of the service under the backup procedure can process them.