The short answer
To check a French company, MarketPrior resolves it against INSEE SIRENE and the Annuaire des Entreprises, then screens it against the 4 global sanctions lists (OFAC SDN list, EU Consolidated Financial Sanctions, UN Security Council Consolidated List, UK Sanctions List), a PEP screen, global news and web signals. In total 37 catalogued sources apply to French companies: 7 specific to France, 3 covering the EU and EEA and 27 global. Every finding links to the record it came from, and gaps are shown rather than filled in.
At a glance
- French sources
- 7
- Sources that apply in total
- 37 (incl. EU-wide and global)
- Company register
- INSEE SIRENE and the Annuaire des Entreprises
- Officers & directors
- From a national source
- Financial figures
- From a national source
- Sales triggers
- 9 (6 French-specific)
How do you check a company in France?
French companies are identified by a nine-digit SIREN and each establishment by a fourteen-digit SIRET in INSEE’s SIRENE register. Legal events — registrations, sales of businesses, changes and collective proceedings — are published in the BODACC.
In MarketPrior, a French company is first resolved to the right legal entity — using its national identifier and, where it has one, its LEI — so that every later lookup is about the same company. The report then combines what the French sources publish with global sanctions, PEP, news and web signals, and every finding is cited to its record.
Which French sources does MarketPrior read?
| Source | Provides | Updates | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Autorité de la concurrence decisions (antitrust fines, merger control) | enforcement & court actions | daily | Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0 |
| CNIL sanctions (DILA open-data délibérations) | enforcement & court actions | daily | Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0 |
| AMF Commission des sanctions decisions + transactions | enforcement & court actions | as published | AMF site — reuse with source attribution |
| ACPR Commission des sanctions (banking/insurance) | enforcement & court actions | as published | Banque de France/ACPR site — reuse with source attribution |
| BODACC (French commercial & insolvency notices) | insolvency notices | daily | Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0 |
| Annuaire des Entreprises / recherche-entreprises (FR) | company profile, officers & directors, financial figures | daily | Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0 |
| Insee Sirene company registry (FR) | company profile, searchable company corpus | weekly | Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0 |
What else applies to every French company?
Some of the most important checks are not national. These EU-wide and global sources are applied to every French company:
- Sanctions: OFAC SDN list, EU Consolidated Financial Sanctions, UN Security Council Consolidated List, UK Sanctions List — with every hit tiered confirmed, probable or possible.
- Politically exposed persons: a PEP screen built on Wikidata.
- Identity and ownership: GLEIF LEI records and GLEIF Level 2 parent and subsidiary links.
- Adverse media: GDELT global news, classified for relevance, sentiment and materiality.
- Growth signals: public job boards, GitHub, web traffic rank, web-archive history, tech stack and app listings.
- EU-wide: the ESMA sanctions register of national regulators, ESEF annual financial reports of listed issuers, and national data-protection (GDPR) fines.
Which sales triggers cover French companies?
French companies produce country-specific triggers from the register as well as the triggers that work in any country:
- New company registrations
- New establishments (SIRET)
- Registry changes
- Business sales (fonds de commerce)
- Administration changes
- Insolvency and dissolution (opt-in)
- Hiring spikes
- Tech adoption
- Website launches
What is not covered for France?
Public records are uneven between countries. Where a source is missing or thin, a MarketPrior report says so instead of filling the gap with a guess.
- Beneficial owners are not read from a French register. Ownership links come from GLEIF Level 2 parent and subsidiary data where the company has an LEI.