When a German creditor's French customer stops paying, the recovery route runs through EU cross-border instruments and French civil procedure, not through the German court that issued the invoice terms. This guide sets out the sequence, what it costs to run, and the point where continuing no longer makes sense.
This route applies when the German creditor has an unpaid invoice, a French debtor with no defence on record, and no judgment yet. The debtor is a company or a sole trader domiciled in France, the contract is commercial, and the amount is not seriously disputed on the merits. Those conditions cover most unpaid export invoices moving from Germany into France.
It does not apply once collective insolvency proceedings have opened against the French debtor – the claim then goes through the insolvency administrator, not a standalone lawsuit. It also does not apply if the creditor already holds a German judgment that meets the conditions for a European Enforcement Order. That decision can then travel to France for enforcement without a fresh claim.
Where no such certificate is available, the alternative is enforcing a judgment already obtained in Germany under the ordinary cross-border recognition rules, which is a different task from starting a French claim from scratch.
The route runs in stages. Each stage produces a document the next stage depends on, and each gives the French debtor a defined window to react.
Three factors decide how long this takes and what it costs to run. The first is whether the debtor opposes the order: an unopposed European Order for Payment or injonction de payer moves quickly, while an opposition sends the file into ordinary litigation with pleadings, hearings and a judgment on the merits – a materially longer process.
The second is where the debtor's assets sit. A French bank account or French real estate is straightforward for a French enforcement officer to seize. Assets moved outside France, or a debtor who has no visible assets at all, turn a cheap enforcement step into a search that can cost more than the invoice is worth.
The third is timing against the debtor's own solvency. A debtor already sliding toward insolvency changes the calculation for every creditor holding the same exposure, and what happens if the French debtor is insolvent often matters more to the outcome than which procedure was chosen.
Before filing, weigh three things against each other: the size of the debt, the debtor's apparent capacity to pay, and the German creditor's ability to prove the debt without a live witness travelling to France. A clean paper trail – contract, delivery note, unpaid invoice, formal demand – makes an unopposed order likely. A weak paper trail invites opposition and a longer fight.
This is also the point to decide whether to run the claim internally or hand the operational steps – translation, filing with the correct French court, instructing an enforcement officer – to someone positioned to act in France. For most files, the practical route is recovering the debt from a French debtor through counsel who file and enforce locally, rather than managing French procedure from Germany at a distance.
Stop before filing if the debtor has no seizable assets in France and none likely to appear – a judgment against an empty debtor is a piece of paper, not money. Stop if the debt is small enough that court fees, translation and enforcement costs absorb most of the recovery even in the best case. Stop, or at least pause, if the debtor has already entered formal insolvency proceedings in France. The claim then competes with every other creditor in a collective process, and a standalone lawsuit adds cost without moving the debtor's ranking.
Before any of these decisions, run the numbers rather than guessing at them. A cost calculator for cross-border claims gives a rough sense of whether the remaining steps are worth the outlay, though the figures it returns still need checking against the specific file.
Yes, for an undisputed commercial debt a German creditor can apply for a European Order for Payment through the German court with jurisdiction, and the resulting order is enforceable in France without a separate French lawsuit. For a debt likely to be disputed, filing directly with a French court is usually more realistic.
A German judgment that qualifies as a European Enforcement Order can be enforced in France without further French court proceedings. A judgment that does not meet those conditions still needs the ordinary cross-border recognition step before a French enforcement officer can act on it.
An unopposed order moves quickly once served, because the debtor's window to react is short. An opposed claim moves into ordinary French court proceedings, which take considerably longer and cost more, since the case is then decided on its merits rather than on the paperwork alone.
For a German exporter, the invoice and the shipment behind it are one file, and waiting does not freeze either. While the file sits untouched, the window to oppose an order closes, other creditors move on the same French debtor's account, and the goods already delivered stop being an asset and become a write-off.