Providing services in France under a MiCA passport

A crypto-asset service provider (CASP) authorised in another Member State of the European Union may serve French clients without an authorisation from the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers, the French financial markets regulator). All it has to do is notify its plan to its home authority: it may start as soon as that authority has forwarded the information to France, and at the latest fifteen days after filing. The passport does not exempt it from French law, whether on consumer protection, language, marketing communications, asset freezing or tax reporting. ORWL Avocats prepares this entry into the French market, working with the provider and with its counsel in the home State.

This page addresses two readers. The first is the CASP already authorised in Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Malta or elsewhere in the Union, which wants to open its offer to French clients. The second is the group established outside the Union, in the United States, the United Kingdom, Dubai or Asia, which has to choose between a subsidiary authorised in France and an authorisation obtained in another Member State, followed by a passport into France.

How does the MiCA passport work?

Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA) sets out a simple principle: an authorisation granted by the authority of one Member State allows the authorised services to be provided throughout the Union. The provider chooses between two routes (Article 59(7)):

• the freedom to provide services, remotely, from its home State;
• the right of establishment, for example through a branch in France.

MiCA requires no physical presence in the host State. France may require neither an authorisation, nor capital, nor an additional office.

The procedure consists of a single notification, described in Article 65 of MiCA. The provider sends its home authority:

• the list of Member States in which it intends to provide its services;
• the services it will provide outside its home State;
• the date on which it intends to start;
• the list of the other activities it carries out outside the scope of MiCA.

The home authority forwards this information within ten working days to the single point of contact in France, to ESMA and to the European Banking Authority. The provider may start as soon as it receives that communication, and at the latest on the fifteenth calendar day following the filing of its notification.

The passport covers only the services that are authorised and notified. A new service first requires an extension of the authorisation from the home authority, then a fresh notification covering France.

A provider without an authorisation in the Union cannot take this route. It may serve French clients only where those clients take the initiative themselves, an exception that MiCA reads narrowly. ORWL Avocats also advises providers on that question (reverse solicitation) and providers that the AMF has added to its blacklist for approaching the French public without authorisation (getting off the AMF blacklist).

What the passport does not cover

The passport settles the question of authorisation. It does not make French law disappear, and French law continues to govern the relationship with the French client. Five bodies of rules call for work before launch.

The first is consumer law. Where a professional directs its activity towards France, a consumer client keeps the protection of the mandatory rules of its own country, even if the contract designates another law (Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 (Rome I), Article 6). Terms and conditions drafted for another market often contain clauses that French law treats as unfair, or omit information that it requires.

The second is language. The French language act of 4 August 1994 (loi Toubon) requires the use of French in the offer and the presentation of a service provided in France. Terms and conditions, the account opening journey and marketing materials intended for French clients must therefore exist in French.

The third is marketing communications. A CASP’s marketing communications must be fair, clear and not misleading (MiCA, Article 66), and the act of 9 June 2023 regulates commercial influence in France. The firm also advises foreign providers on their campaigns, their partnerships and their influencer agreements (marketing by a foreign provider in France).

The fourth is anti-money laundering and asset freezing. The ACPR (Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution, the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority) states the rule: under the freedom to provide services, the law of the home State applies; where the provider establishes itself in France, French law applies. French asset freezing measures, on the other hand, apply in both cases, including to a provider established abroad for its activity in France (the French Treasury, direction générale du Trésor). We recommend opening a dialogue with the ACPR and with Tracfin (the French financial intelligence unit) before launch, in particular on the handling of suspicious transaction reports concerning French clients. Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 (AMLR), applicable on 10 July 2027, will bring these rules closer together across the Union.

The fifth is tax reporting. Since 1 January 2026, CASPs have been collecting their clients’ tax data under the DAC8 directive, ahead of the first exchanges between administrations in 2027. The firm also handles these obligations and the taxation of French clients, through its Tax practice.

What powers does the AMF retain?

The AMF has no right of veto at the notification stage. It takes no part in the authorisation granted in the home State and cannot prevent the passport from taking effect. It does, however, retain powers of intervention once the activity has started.

• Precautionary measures (MiCA, Article 102): where the AMF has clear and demonstrable grounds for believing that the provider is in breach of MiCA, it informs the home authority and ESMA. If the breaches persist, it takes the measures needed to protect clients itself, up to prohibiting the continuation of the activity in France.
• Product intervention (MiCA, Article 105): the AMF may prohibit or restrict in France the marketing of certain crypto-assets or certain practices that raise a significant risk for investors or for markets.

The AMF follows closely those providers that serve France from another Member State. Together with its Italian and Austrian counterparts, it has called for a revision of MiCA and for direct supervision of the main providers by ESMA (speech by the Chair of the AMF, 9 October 2025, in French). A passported provider therefore has every reason to prepare its entry into the French market as carefully as its authorisation file.

Subsidiary or passport?

A group established outside the Union must first obtain an authorisation in a Member State. It chooses between two routes: setting up a subsidiary authorised by the AMF, or having an entity authorised in another Member State, then passporting it into France.

The substance requirements are the same everywhere. The authorised entity must have its registered office in a Member State where it provides at least part of its services, its effective management in the Union and at least one director resident in the Union (MiCA, Article 59(2)). ESMA is pushing national authorities towards a demanding review: its peer review of 10 July 2025 called on all authorities to look closely at applicants’ governance, intragroup arrangements and IT architecture (ESMA, 10 July 2025).

The choice therefore turns less on the supposed flexibility of a given regulator than on four questions:

• what share of the business will come from French clients;
• where the teams and the managers are located;
• which regulator knows the business model, and in which language the group wants to work with it;
• what timetable the group can meet.

The reform of supervision also weighs on that choice. On 4 December 2025, the European Commission proposed to entrust ESMA with the authorisation and supervision of all CASPs. The text is under negotiation; if it is adopted, the choice of the State of authorisation will lose part of its significance.

Where the group opts for a French subsidiary, the firm also runs the CASP authorisation file with the AMF.

Our method for entering the French market

The firm prepares everything French law requires of a passported provider. We work in English with its teams and with its counsel in the home State, who keep the relationship with the authority that granted the authorisation.

The work begins with a mapping of the offer intended for French clients: services, acquisition channels, partners, activities outside MiCA. It determines which documents have to be reworked and which passporting route has to be notified. The notification itself takes little time; preparing the documents and the anti-money laundering framework sets the real timetable.

After launch, we remain the provider’s point of contact for the French market: replies to requests from the AMF or the ACPR, review of new campaigns, extension of the offer to new services.

Why work with ORWL Avocats?

Since 2018, the firm has advised crypto-asset service providers and payment institutions from other Member States before the AMF and the ACPR, groups from third countries setting up in the Union, and providers targeted by the AMF. It knows the French market and its players, and puts its clients in touch with the local contacts that save them time. Independent of any network, it works just as readily with local partners as with its clients’ long-standing counsel. The firm is ranked in Chambers FinTech and by Leaders League.

A lawyer brings what a consultant cannot: the legal qualification of each French rule in the light of the passport, professional secrecy over the provider’s information, and liability for the advice given. A lawyer drafts the contractual documents and speaks to the regulator on behalf of the client.

A partner leads every matter, from the mapping of the offer to ongoing support after launch.