A request for correction (missing document, inconsistency) costs nothing extra: you have 15 working days to respond. A final rejection, on the other hand, can mean losing the greffe (commercial court registry) fees already paid (€53.16 for a commercial company, beneficial ownership included): you have to pay again to refile. The safest course is to answer every request within the deadline.
Why the greffe keeps the fees
The Commercial Code provides that the registrar's fee pays for "all work, care, diligence and formalities" related to the filing (art. R743-140). According to formalities professionals (Compta Online, October 2026), a growing number of greffes draw two conclusions from this: Sources (3)
LégifranceLégifrance: Commercial Code, art. R743-140 (registrars' fees)
Compta OnlineCompta Online (6 October 2026): rejected formalities and fees kept by the greffes
Service-publicService-public: company registration formalities
- a correction is no longer charged on top;
- in the event of a final invalidation, the fees paid are kept, since they pay for processing the application, not for the registration itself.
What leads to a rejection
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| Missing or illegible document | Request for correction: you complete the application at no cost |
| No response within the 15-working-day deadline | The application may be rejected |
| Inconsistent information between the articles, the form and the documents | Request for correction, then rejection if it is not corrected |
| Regulated activity without the required authorisation | Rejection |
What our guarantee covers
With the Rapide plan, the anti-rejection guarantee covers the correction and refiling with no service fee if the greffe rejects the application or asks for a correction because of an error attributable to LegalRapide. It does not cover false or incomplete information or documents supplied by the client, nor any additional legal fees (new legal notice, greffe fees). In your client area, each request from the greffe appears as soon as it is received, and you respond there by attaching the requested document.
Written by Razvan Toma, founder of LegalRapide. How we check our figures · LinkedIn