Business
1826 Code de commerce with a 2017 investment framework
Commercial law rests on the Code de commerce of 1826, of French origin and only partially modernised, under which the société anonyme and the société à responsabilité limitée are the principal forms. Registration is with the Ministère du Commerce et de l'Industrie, and a NIF taxpayer number is obtained from the Direction Générale des Impôts. The Investment Code and the Centre de Facilitation des Investissements provide incentives and a single window, and free zones operate under their own law.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — National; Ministère du Commerce and the Tribunaux de commerce
- Deadline — Patente (business licence): renewed annually
- Deadline — Registration in the registre du commerce: before commencing trade
- Deadline — Investment incentives: applied for through CFI before the project begins
Governing law
- Code de commerce de 1826
- Décret-loi sur le Code des Investissements 2002
- Loi sur les zones franches 2002
- Loi de 2016 sur les sociétés anonymes
In practice
The age of the commercial code is the central practical difficulty, because it predates modern concepts of corporate governance, security over movables and insolvency reorganisation, so transactions are often documented to foreign standards and then adapted. Incentive regimes under the Investment Code and the free-zone law are where most substantive planning happens, and they require approval before the investment is made rather than after.