Buying French company data: ten things to check

Ten checks before you order

1. Where do the data come from, and under which licence?

A reliable company file names its sources. In France, three families come up again and again:

• INSEE’s Sirene database, published under Licence Ouverte 2.0: free reuse, including commercial reuse, provided you state the source and the date of the last update. It gives SIREN, SIRET, activity and address, but no contact details (see The Sirene database: SIREN, SIRET and public data).
• Open map data, such as Overture Maps Places. According to the Overture Maps attribution page, most sources in the places theme are published under CDLA Permissive 2.0, some under Apache 2.0 or CC0 1.0. CDLA Permissive 2.0 allows the data to be shared provided the text of the licence is made available with them.
• Businesses’ own websites, in particular their “contact” and “mentions légales” (legal notice) pages, which often show an email address and a phone number.

If a provider names no source, you cannot assess freshness, licence or the origin of a disputed record. firmdata.fr describes its sources on the sources and methodology page.

2. What is the data date?

The Sirene register changes every month: an undated file does not tell you how many businesses have ceased trading since. Ask for a date per source, for example the date of the Sirene stock file and the version of the map data. “Continuously updated” without further detail is not information.

3. How many records have the field you need?

A total says little. For a postal mailing, the complete address counts; for an email campaign, the email address; for CRM matching, the SIREN or the website. Ask for the fill rate of each field for your exact selection, not a national average. firmdata.fr’s current figures are on the database status page.

4. Are the email addresses reliable?

Three questions separate a good file from an inflated one:

• Shared addresses. The same address sometimes appears on dozens of records: that of a web agency, a hosting provider or a franchise network. At firmdata.fr, an address shared by at least three records with different names is dropped, as are role addresses such as dpo@ or privacy@.
• Generic or named addresses. A company’s info@ or contact@ address is not personal data; a firstname.lastname@ address is, and the GDPR applies.
• Reconstructed addresses. Some offers “guess” firstname.lastname@company.fr. The CNIL strictly regulates this practice (publication of 16 October 2026). firmdata.fr does not generate addresses and does not present them as verified: our files show the addresses as given by the source.

5. How is the industry defined?

Usually by NAF codes. Ask for the exact list of codes used and what happens to records without a code. At firmdata.fr, the NAF code comes from the ongoing matching against the Sirene database: the quotation states how many records have a NAF code and how many do not. See NAF and APE codes: targeting an industry.

6. How is the region assigned?

A regional selection relies on an assignment rule. At firmdata.fr, the département is derived from the postcode and the region from the département. Ask any provider which rule it applies and what happens to records without a postcode.

7. Which records concern natural persons?

The Sirene database has 7,845,810 active sole traders (entrepreneurs individuels; our count of the file of 1 November 2026). Their data are personal data: whoever uses the file must inform them (Article 14 GDPR) and respect their right to object (Article 21). The legal form column will only be filled in after matching with the Sirene database (in progress): today no record has it yet. Until then, a business name made up of a first name and a surname usually indicates a sole trader. Units with partial dissemination in Sirene, which have exercised their right to object, are excluded from matching.

8. What will you use the file for?

According to the CNIL (in French), email or telephone prospecting towards professionals may be based on legitimate interest if the offer relates to their profession, with information and a right to object; towards private individuals, prior consent is required. Postal mail requires prior information and a right to object. A purchased file includes no consent. Details: B2B email and phone prospecting in France.

9. What does a usable record cost?

Divide the price by the number of records you can actually use for your purpose. Check the model too: one-off purchase, rental for a single campaign or subscription. At firmdata.fr, it is a one-off export, with no subscription, at a full price in euros; prices per industry are on the prices page, and regional or custom selections are quoted individually.

10. Does the format suit you?

Download a sample file before you order. Check the encoding (accents), the delimiter and whether SIREN, SIRET and postcodes are stored as text: otherwise leading zeros disappear. The firmdata.fr sample file contains 30 fictitious businesses as UTF-8 CSV with a semicolon delimiter: export and sample file.

A worked example

Offer A costs €300 for 2,000 records, 1,200 of them with an email address. Offer B costs €400 for 2,500 records, 2,000 of them with an email address. For an email campaign, one usable record costs 25 cents with A and 20 cents with B: the more expensive offer is the cheaper one for this purpose. The figures are an arbitrary example.

Five warning signs

• “Verified emails” or “opt-in” without any explanation of the method or of where consent came from.
• No source given, or named addresses for every business.
• No date for the data.
• No sample file and no field description.
• No legal notice and no contact address for the provider.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use purchased French company data for email campaigns?

Towards professionals, yes, if your offer relates to their profession: the CNIL then accepts legitimate interest, with information, a right to object and an unsubscribe link in every message. A purchased file contains no consent, which rules out electronic prospecting of private individuals.

How can I tell whether a file is up to date?

Ask for the date of each source used and how closed businesses are identified. A reliable provider gives specific dates, for example that of the Sirene file and the version of the map data.

What does a French company file cost?

That depends on the selection, the fields and the usage rights. Compare offers by the price per record you can actually use for your purpose, and check whether it is a one-off purchase, a rental for one campaign or a subscription.

As of 4 November 2026. Sources: Overture Maps (attribution page), text of CDLA Permissive 2.0, Licence Ouverte 2.0 on data.gouv.fr, CNIL guidance and the GDPR text published by the CNIL, retrieved on 4 November 2026. The number of active sole traders is from our count of the StockUniteLegale file of 1 November 2026 (source: INSEE, Sirene database, www.insee.fr). General information, not legal advice.