Public version of a corporate document without a home address (RNE): the method

What Decree No. 2025-840 provides

Decree No. 2025-840 of August 22, 2025, published in the Journal officiel of August 24, 2025, creates Articles R. 123-54-1 and R. 123-54-2 of the French Commercial Code (Code de commerce) and supplements its Article R. 123-3. It came into force “the day after its publication” (our translation), that is, on August 25, 2025.

Who it is for. The text covers the individuals referred to in Article R. 123-54: directors and officers (gérants, presidents, chief executive officers, management board members, board members, supervisory board members…) and partners with unlimited liability for the company’s debts. They “may, at any time, request confidentiality of the information relating to their personal home address” (Art. R. 123-54-1). It is an option, not an obligation. The address is still declared to the register: only its publication is restricted.

For which documents. Any document filed as an annex to the trade and companies register (Art. R. 123-102). The request is then accompanied by a copy of the document in which “the mention of their personal address is concealed by the applicant”. So it is up to you to produce the redacted document. The court clerk publishes it “in place of the original document”, which is kept as supporting evidence. The examples given by the INPI (the French intellectual property office, which runs the register): articles of association, minutes of a general meeting, a liquidator’s report, a capital reduction decision.

Within what time. The clerk processes the request within five clear working days of receiving it. After that, the applicant can refer the matter to the judge in charge of supervising the register.

Who can still see the address. Article R. 123-54-2 gives access to the address to the authorities, administrations, bodies and professions it lists. The unconcealed information may also be released to the company’s legal representatives, its partners and certain creditors.

The RNE (Registre national des entreprises, the national business register), the INPI points out, “does not publish the personal addresses of company representatives”. The address does, however, appear in filed documents, which are published by default, and on the Kbis extract (the official company registration certificate), as long as no request has been made.

On the guichet unique: two versions and a supporting form

The INPI page “Anonymisation des actes et des données personnelles” (anonymization of documents and personal data), published on August 27, 2025, describes three processes.

For a document you are filing

In the “Pièces jointes” (attachments) tab, each eligible document has a box reading, in substance, “I request that this document not be published and attach a public version below”. If you tick it, you attach:

• a public version, “without personal addresses”, published on the RNE;
• a confidential version, complete, “accessible only to the commercial court registry”;
• a supporting form for the confidentiality request, under “Pièces supplémentaires” (additional documents). The INPI provides a template in Word format.

Check the summary before submitting: the document should appear as “Version publique” and “Version confidentielle”, with the supporting form.

For a document already published

Articles of association filed in 2024 still show your address? Open a document-filing formality and answer “Oui” (yes) to the question about the document to be replaced. The “Sélection de l’acte” (document selection) tab lists the documents filed for your SIREN number, which you can download. Attach the new public version and the supporting form (in its example, the INPI also has the full version attached). If the registry validates it, the public version replaces the old one on the RNE, the original is accessible only to the registry, and the home addresses are concealed on the Kbis.

For the Kbis only

The same process, without selecting a document, is used to request that home addresses be concealed on the Kbis extract. Only the supporting form is attached.

Where the addresses are in a document

A home address rarely appears in just one place. Before redacting, take inventory, page by page:

• The parties section. At the top of the articles of association, each partner is usually identified with their civil status and home address, often after “demeurant” or “domicilié” (residing at).
• The appointment of directors. The clause appointing the first president or manager often repeats their address, as do the minutes appointing their successor.
• Tables. Share capital breakdown, list of subscribers, attendance sheet for a general meeting.
• Annexes in the same PDF. Acceptance of office, powers of attorney, list of acts performed on behalf of the company in formation.
• The last page. Signature blocks, contact details sometimes repeated under a signatory’s name.
• Headers and footers. A correspondence address repeated on every page easily goes unnoticed.
• What the screen does not show. Metadata (title, subject, keywords), bookmarks, comments, files attached to the PDF, hidden layers.

The decree and the INPI page refer only to home addresses: the rest of the document remains readable, unchanged.

Producing the public version, step by step

The text refers to a copy of the document in which the address is concealed: same content, same layout, minus the addresses. So start from the PDF of the document, not a retyped version.

1. Duplicate the PDF of the document. The complete original will be the confidential version: work only on the copy.
2. Find each address using the list above, then search the file (Ctrl+F or Cmd+F) for each street name, each postcode, “demeurant” and “domicilié”.
3. Delete them with a true redaction tool, which removes the text from the file instead of covering it.
4. Check the resulting file, as explained below.
5. Name the two files unambiguously, so as not to mix them up when filing.

Three tools that really delete the text

Adobe Acrobat Pro. The tool is called “Redact” (“Biffer” in the French interface): All tools, then Redact a PDF. “Redact text and images” marks an area with the mouse; “Find text & redact” finds every occurrence of a street or a postcode. Then click “Apply”, then “Continue” to clean up hidden information. According to Adobe, the redactions and this information are then permanently removed and saved to a new file. The tool is only available in Acrobat Pro, Premium or Studio.

Preview, on a Mac. The redaction tool in the Markup toolbar masks the selected text. According to Apple, “once the document is closed, the redaction becomes permanent” (our translation). Apple also notes that table of contents entries that point to redacted text are not removed: check the PDF’s table of contents (bookmarks). The step-by-step guide is in redacting a PDF on a Mac with Preview.

LibreOffice, free. Tools › Redact: draw a rectangle over each address, then choose “Redacted Export (Black)”. The resulting PDF is made of pixels: no text remains in it. “Direct Export to PDF” is not suitable: LibreOffice’s help presents it as a text copy for review. Finally, check that the layout has not moved.

Check before filing

• Copy and paste. Select all (Cmd+A or Ctrl+A), copy, paste into a text editor: no address should appear.
• Search. Search the final file for each street and each postcode: no results expected.
• What is hidden. Open the PDF’s bookmarks, comments and attached files.
• Metadata. Title, subject and keywords may contain a name or an address: see how to remove a PDF’s metadata.
• Comparison. Leaf through the public version next to the original: same number of pages, only the addresses have disappeared.

What AnonymFiles does here, and what it does not

For a firm that handles many clients’ corporate documents, AnonymFiles, a desktop app coming soon for Apple silicon Macs and Windows, is used for locating the addresses. You drop in a folder of documents as text PDFs or Word (.docx) files; on your computer, the app automatically finds the addresses, but also names, private dates and ID numbers, in every document. Each address found becomes a placeholder, such as [ADRESSE_1], and you review each original next to its copy. A missed address, selected in the original, is masked across the whole folder. You thus know, document by document, where to redact the PDF to be filed.

AnonymFiles does not, however, produce the public version to be filed. Its export keeps the layout and truly deletes the masked text, but it masks everything it detected, partners’ names and dates included, and a detection cannot yet be removed one by one. Yet the public version must conceal only the address. For the official filing, it is therefore produced with a redaction tool where you choose each area, such as those described above.

Two more points. Scanned documents are read by local OCR, and a stamp or handwritten note that the OCR cannot read is masked in one click. And no detection is perfect: each document is reviewed side by side with the original, and nothing is exported without approval. A public version that still contains text can also be run through it: any address still found deserves a second look. The full process: how AnonymFiles works in an accounting firm.

Scanned document: handled by hand

A document signed by hand and then scanned is an image: without text recognition (OCR), there is nothing to search, and each address must be spotted by eye, annexes included. The redaction must cover the pixels. Acrobat Pro does this with “Redact text and images”, LibreOffice with its rectangles and its pixel-based redacted export.

A document downloaded from the guichet unique may also be a scan: try selecting its text. After redaction, repeat the copy-and-paste test: if text comes out of a scanned page, it exists in the file, and the address must not be in it. See the steps to anonymize a scanned PDF. AnonymFiles reads these documents by local OCR.