We are looking to revive a supplier, recover a debt, or simply understand why a commercial space has shut down. The first reflex is to type the company’s name into a search engine. A vague result does not indicate whether the company is truly deregistered, in liquidation, or just dormant. Verifying that a company is definitively closed requires cross-referencing several official sources.
A closed SIRET does not mean the company is deregistered
We often come across a SIRET marked “closed” when consulting a public database. The temptation is to conclude that the company no longer exists. This is a common mistake.
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A company can operate multiple establishments under the same SIREN. When a secondary establishment ceases its activity, its SIRET goes into a closed status, but the legal entity continues to exist as long as the SIREN remains active. To find information on Positive Entreprise, we start by distinguishing these two levels of identification.
On the National Register of Companies (RNE) hosted by the INPI, we can check the overall administrative status of the SIREN. If all establishments are closed and the mention “deregistered” appears, the company has indeed disappeared legally. As long as this is not the case, the closure of a SIRET proves nothing about the survival of the entity.
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Cross-reference RNE, Infogreffe, and BODACC to confirm deregistration
No single source is sufficient. We need to cross-check at least three databases to be certain of a company’s status.
The RNE on the INPI website
This is the starting point. Enter the SIREN number or the company name. The record displays the administrative status (active, in cessation, deregistered) and the date of the last recorded event. A SIREN without recent events and still marked “active” indicates that the company still exists, even if its activity seems to be at a standstill.
Infogreffe and the Kbis extract
For commercial companies registered with the Trade and Companies Register, Infogreffe provides access to modification registrations. Here, you can find mentions of early dissolution, appointment of a liquidator, or closure of liquidation. It is the closure of liquidation that triggers deregistration, not the simple decision to dissolve.
The BODACC
The Official Bulletin of Civil and Commercial Announcements publishes judgments opening collective proceedings (judicial recovery, judicial liquidation) as well as deregistrations. A search by SIREN on the BODACC website allows you to find the corresponding notice. If a judicial liquidation judgment has been pronounced and a closure notice for lack of assets has been published, the closure is definitive.
- RNE/INPI: administrative status of the SIREN, date of the last event, list of active or closed establishments.
- Infogreffe: mentions in the RCS (dissolution, liquidation, deregistration), identity of the liquidator, up-to-date Kbis extract.
- BODACC: publication of collective procedure judgments, deregistration notices, liquidation closure announcements.
Amicable dissolution or judicial liquidation: two very different processes
When trying to determine if a company is definitively closed, the type of procedure completely changes what we will find in the registers.
Amicable dissolution (also called early dissolution) is decided by the partners during a general assembly. A liquidator is appointed, debts are settled, liquidation accounts are approved, and then the closure is pronounced. The company is then deregistered from the RCS. This process leaves traces only in legal announcements and on Infogreffe.
Amicable liquidation is prohibited if the company is in cessation of payments. In this case, only a collective procedure can be opened by the court. Judicial liquidation occurs when recovery is clearly not possible. The court appoints a judicial liquidator, assets are sold to satisfy creditors, and the closure ends the existence of the company.
For a creditor or a business partner, the difference is concrete. An amicable dissolution means that debts have normally been settled before deregistration. A judicial liquidation closed for lack of assets means that some creditors have not been paid, and recourse is limited.
Verify the closure of a sole proprietorship or micro-enterprise
The case of individual entrepreneurs is a bit different. A declared cessation of activity on the INPI Single Window leads to the closure of the SIRET, but the effective deregistration may take a few weeks. Feedback varies on processing times depending on the time of year.
To confirm that a sole proprietor has definitively ceased their activity, we check two things:
- The RNE record shows a status of “ceased” with a date of cessation of activity.
- The entrepreneur has received an acknowledgment of receipt and a deregistration certificate, documents they can provide upon request to a creditor or partner.
Keeping the deregistration certificate is the only reliable documentary proof of closure for a sole proprietor. Without this document, doubts may remain, particularly regarding URSSAF or social organizations.
Legal announcements as a trace of the closure procedure
Each step of a dissolution-liquidation generates a publication in a legal announcements journal. The dissolution notice mentions the decision of the partners, the name of the liquidator, and the liquidation headquarters. The liquidation closure notice confirms that operations are completed.
These announcements can be consulted online on several platforms. They allow for the reconstruction of the exact timeline of the closure, which is useful when trying to precisely date the end of activity of a supplier or subcontractor.
The CCI Paris Île-de-France reminds us that effective deregistration occurs after the submission of formalities on the Single Window. As long as this last step is not completed, the company continues to exist legally, even if the liquidation closure has been voted in assembly.
A closed premises, an offline website, or a phone number that no longer answers proves nothing. Only deregistration from the RCS or RNE, verifiable online for free, confirms that a company has definitively ceased to exist. The most reliable reflex remains to cross-check the RNE, Infogreffe, and BODACC before drawing a conclusion.