Struck-off, closed or dormant French company: how to tell

Struck off, closed, dormant: what the words mean

• Active company: it is registered and has not declared the end of its activity.
• Closed (ceased) company: it has ended its activity. Its SIREN stays attached to it, with a closing date, but it can no longer be used to invoice a new customer.
• Struck-off company: it has been removed from the register in which it was entered. For a company, this follows its dissolution and the closing of its liquidation. It is the step that formalises its disappearance.
• Dormant company: the everyday expression for a company with no activity, no employees and no turnover, but which has not been closed. It is not an official status. On record it generally appears as active as long as its cessation has not been declared.

An establishment can close without the company disappearing: a company that closes a branch stays active. The reverse is impossible: when the company closes, all its establishments close. To tell the two cases apart, see How to check a French SIRET number.

Between activity and strike-off: dissolution and liquidation

A company does not go from “active” to “struck off” overnight. A company is first dissolved, then liquidated: its assets are sold and its debts settled. It continues to exist, for the purposes of its liquidation, until it is closed. During this period it can still appear as active on record, with a liquidation mention.

A court-ordered liquidation follows the same logic and a temporary continuation of the activity can be authorised. The subject is detailed in How to check if a French company is in liquidation. Bear in mind that a company “in liquidation” is not yet closed, but that it is wise to be careful before delivering to it or granting it extra time to pay.

Why check before invoicing or signing

• Invoicing a closed company: an invoice addressed to a company that no longer exists is unlikely to be paid and can be rejected, especially now that the customer's SIREN is mandatory on invoices (France e-invoicing 2026);
• Signing with a company that has disappeared: a contract concluded with an entity that no longer exists has no counterparty;
• Depending on a closed supplier: you discover the closure when the delivery does not arrive;
• Keeping a file clean: chasing closed companies wastes time and skews your statistics.

The right moment is when you create the record, then at regular intervals, or better, when the situation changes. The information comes from the published situation of companies: a closure is only known once recorded, and a customer in difficulty may have stopped paying long before.

How to tell whether a company is closed

Several clues add up:

• The status of the company, active or closed, from its SIREN;
• The closing date, when it is known;
• The signals: insolvency proceedings, liquidation or dissolution under way;
• Recent legal notices, which publish judgments and strike-offs;
• Your own experience: returned mail, disconnected phone numbers, a website that is down.

None of these elements amounts to legal advice. They help you decide whether to ask for clarification before going further.

With Companies: the status, the closing date and alerts

The record returned by GET /v2/companies/{id} always contains status (active, closed or unknown) and closed_on, the closing date. The signals block adds the current signals:

curl "https://companies.jsonpage.com/v2/companies/FR-652014051?include=signals" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $COMPANIES_API_KEY"

The possible signals are insolvency_proceedings (insolvency proceedings), liquidation (dissolution or liquidation under way, Belgium and Switzerland) and closed. For Switzerland, a closed entity is flagged but the closing date is not filled in.

To avoid asking the question again, add your customers and suppliers to monitoring. A status change, a new signal or a new legal notice becomes an event, sent to a signed webhook and by e-mail. Monitoring is included in every plan: 2 companies with the free account, 1,000 with Standard, 10,000 with Pro.

Keep reading

• INSOLVENCY PROCEEDINGSHow to check if a French company is in liquidationLiquidation, redressement and sauvegarde explained, the signals to watch and alerts on your customers and suppliers.
• SIRETHow to check a French SIRET numberThe 14-digit format, spotting typing mistakes and the difference between a valid SIRET and an active establishment.
• VERIFICATIONIs this company real? Checks before signingA six-point checklist: identifier, status, name and address, VAT, signals and sanctions lists.