French approved platforms (PA): PDP, PPF, OD and the annuaire explained

In France, electronic invoices between businesses travel only between approved platforms — plateformes agréées (PA), the operators the tax administration has registered, formerly called PDP. Every business must have chosen one for reception since 1 September 2026. The State no longer exchanges invoices itself: its part, often still called the PPF, is the annuaire that tells platforms where to deliver and the concentrator that receives invoice, transaction and payment data for the administration. Ordinary invoicing software and opérateurs de dématérialisation (OD) can prepare and hand over invoices, but only a PA may transmit them.

The three kinds of actor

The reform distinguishes registered platforms, which alone may transmit, from unregistered service providers and software, which may only prepare and connect.

Plateforme agréée (PA)

An opérateur de dématérialisation that the DGFiP's Service d'immatriculation has registered for three renewable years after a file proving tax compliance, infrastructure and data security, and technical interoperability with the PPF and other platforms. Definitive registration is granted only after interoperability tests in real conditions. A PA issues, transmits and receives e-invoices, converts between formats where needed, extracts the invoice data the administration is entitled to, and transmits e-reporting transaction and payment data. Before the renaming the same actor was called a plateforme de dématérialisation partenaire (PDP); the DGFiP's own FAQ file on platforms still carries the old name.

Portail public de facturation (PPF)

The State's infrastructure. In the current design it provides the annuaire — the directory of recipients, fed by the platforms, that allows addressing — and the concentrator that receives data from the platforms for the administration. Businesses do not deposit B2B invoices on it; Chorus Pro remains the separate portal for invoices to public bodies.

Opérateur de dématérialisation (OD) and "solution compatible"

A service provider or software that produces, converts or archives invoices without being registered. The DGFiP states that such an operator is not authorised to transmit e-invoices to a customer's platform, receive them on the business's behalf or transmit data to the administration; it must connect to a PA. A "solution compatible" logo, distinct from the "plateforme agréée" logo, marks such software.

How an invoice flows

The invoice goes from the seller's software to the seller's PA, from there to the buyer's PA, and from the buyer's PA to the buyer; the seller's PA sends the administration only the data the law lists.

1. Preparation. The seller's software (or OD) creates a structured invoice — UBL, CII or a hybrid such as Factur-X — with the mandatory mentions, including the customer's SIREN.
2. Submission. The invoice is handed to the seller's PA, which checks format and mandatory data. A rejection at this point is a technical incident: the seller corrects and resubmits.
3. Addressing. The PA consults the annuaire, keyed by SIREN and, where the buyer has registered establishments or services, SIRET and routing data, to find the buyer's reception platform. If the annuaire is temporarily unavailable, platforms may rely on previously retrieved copies and on technical addresses such as Peppol addresses.
4. Transmission. The seller's PA delivers the invoice to the buyer's PA through their interoperability agreement or a network protocol; each PA must interoperate at least with one other PA bilaterally or through a network. Conversion between formats happens here when the buyer's platform prefers another one.
5. Reception and lifecycle. The buyer's PA makes the invoice available and returns lifecycle statuses. A buyer's refusal is a motivated status reserved for the reasons the standard allows — regulatory non-conformity the platform did not catch, wrong addressee, contractual conditions that prevent processing — not for a commercial dispute; a refused invoice is re-issued under a new number.
6. Data to the administration. The seller's PA extracts the invoice data (parties, net amount, VAT rate and amount, and so on) and sends it through the concentrator. E-reporting of B2C and cross-border transactions and of payment data goes through the same platform on the schedule set by the business's VAT regime.

The model is distributed by design: the DGFiP states that invoices are not centralised by the administration and that only the data provided by law is transmitted. It is a four-corner model like Peppol's — seller, seller's platform, buyer's platform, buyer — with a State directory in place of Peppol's SMP/SML lookup. The comparison with the Belgian and Polish models is on Peppol vs national networks.

Peppol and the French platforms

Peppol is one of the ways two PAs can interoperate, and the DGFiP is the Peppol Authority for France, but being a Peppol access point does not make an operator a PA.

The DGFiP explains that a PA must interoperate with at least one other PA by bilateral agreement or through a network protocol, and that as Peppol Authority it can impose French requirements on service providers — for example the obligation to be registered as a PA before issuing or receiving reform invoices over Peppol in France. A provider whose seat is in France signs the Peppol France agreement and passes OpenPeppol's conformance tests; a provider based elsewhere contracts with its own Peppol Authority or with OpenPeppol and needs no French agreement. Peppol itself, its identifiers and its access points are described on Peppol and Peppol identifiers.

Choosing a platform

The choice is free: a business may use one PA or several, may choose a different PA from its suppliers and customers, and may change platform when its needs evolve — the buyer's platform, not the supplier, decides the reception format.

A business that has not yet designated a reception platform must do so without delay, directly or through its software, accountant or bank, and must be able to show it has started — the DGFiP's start-up guide says this situation should not stop activity or payments but must be corrected quickly. The fine for not having chosen a reception platform is €500 three months after a formal notice, then €1,000 per further three-month period.

How KRONENWERK handles this

NOT YET READY for transmission. KRONENWERK is not a plateforme agréée and is not on the DGFiP's lists; it does not transmit invoices to a customer's platform, receive them on a business's behalf or send data to the administration. French transmission is planned through Storecove's approved-platform capability and is not yet production-ready in KRONENWERK. What works today is SUPPORTED: Factur-X generation and validation at issuance (see Factur-X), and reading incoming Factur-X, CII and UBL invoices into bills. A French company therefore chooses a PA from the DGFiP's list and uses KRONENWERK's files with it, and it is the PA, not KRONENWERK, that handles e-reporting. The France hub sets out the calendar and scope; the country page France states the same status. KRONENWERK does not give tax or legal advice on which obligations apply.