What is the DAC7 Directive?

Directive 2021/514/EU, known as "DAC7", entered into force on 1 January 2023 across the entire European Union. It requires operators of digital platforms to collect, verify, and report to tax authorities the revenues generated by sellers and service providers active on their platforms.

In France, it was transposed by Article 134 of the Finance Act for 2022. The first mandatory declaration — covering 2023 data — had to be submitted to the DGFiP (French tax authority) before 31 January 2024. The obligations are now permanent and annual.

Which Platforms Are Affected?

DAC7 targets all digital platform operators that facilitate any of the following activities: the sale of goods, the provision of services, the rental of real estate, or the rental of means of transport. This directly concerns e-commerce marketplaces, service platforms, peer-to-peer rental platforms, and any intermediary that processes or records payments between sellers and buyers.

An operator established outside the EU that operates in Europe is also subject to DAC7 if it facilitates transactions involving European sellers or buyers.

What Data Must Be Collected for Each Seller?

For each seller exceeding the reporting thresholds (30 transactions or €2,000 in annual revenue), the operator must collect and verify the following data.

Legal identity: first and last name (natural person) or company name (legal entity). Primary address: registered office address or tax residence. Tax identification number: TIN in the country of tax residence — in France, the SIREN for legal entities. Registration number: for legal entities, the company registration number. Presence of a permanent establishment in the EU: relevant Member State(s).

In addition to identity data, financial data is also required: consideration received quarter by quarter, number of transactions, fees and taxes withheld by the platform.

The Verification Challenge: Why It's More Complex Than It Seems

DAC7 does not merely require collecting data — it requires verifying it. The operator must ensure that the information provided by the seller is accurate and that the declared entity actually exists.

For French e-commerce sellers, the key verification is the SIREN. It is the reference identifier to confirm that a company is genuinely registered in France, that it is active (not struck off or in liquidation), and that its registered office address is indeed on French territory.

Three difficulties arise in practice. Sellers do not always provide a valid SIREN. A seller may declare a French address without having a valid registration number — either because they operate as an individual, or because they use a foreign entity with an EU VAT number but no French registration. Manual verification does not scale. For a marketplace with 5,000 active sellers exceeding the thresholds, one-by-one verification via the INPI represents hundreds of hours of work. Self-declared data is unreliable. A fraudulent seller can provide a valid SIREN that does not belong to them. A cross-referenced domain-to-SIREN check is necessary to detect this type of fraud.

The lebot.in Method for DAC7 Verification

For sellers with a website or online store, lebot.in offers an automated 4-step process that goes further than a simple INPI check.

Starting from the seller's URL, the system verifies that the domain is the actual destination domain (not an alias), extracts legal notices and T&Cs to identify the declared SIREN, identifies the SIREN using AI by filtering out false positives (VAT numbers, APE codes, internal references), and cross-references the result with the INPI to confirm legal existence, activity status, and registered office location in France.

The result: for each seller URL, you get a verified SIREN, an activity status, and a registered office address — the three critical data points for your DAC7 obligation. This verification is particularly useful for detecting high-risk cases: sellers whose self-declared SIREN does not match the entity on the site, foreign sellers without French registration, and dissolved entities that continue to operate.

For more detail on the technical method, see our in-depth article: How to Find the SIREN of an E-commerce Website.

Integrating Verification into Your Onboarding Flow

DAC7 compliance is easier to maintain when verification is integrated into the seller onboarding process, rather than treated as a year-end fiscal obligation. A robust onboarding flow for an e-commerce marketplace looks like this.

  1. Collection at registration: website URL, company name, declared SIREN, banking details.
  2. Immediate verification: URL → SIREN cross-reference via lebot.in to confirm that the declared SIREN matches the submitted site.
  3. INPI validation: confirmation that the entity is active and established in France (or identification as a foreign entity).
  4. Conditional hold: sellers whose SIREN cannot be verified are placed on hold pending additional documentation.
  5. Annual monitoring: periodic re-verification to detect deregistrations and status changes.

This approach avoids finding yourself at year-end with hundreds of sellers whose data is incomplete or incorrect, and for whom a DAC7 declaration cannot be produced.

Sanctions for Non-Compliance

In France, sanctions for failing to meet DAC7 obligations are set by Article 1736 ter of the French Tax Code: €50,000 fine per declaration not submitted or submitted late; additional fine for each seller whose data is incomplete, inaccurate, or unverified; potential joint liability in cases of fraud facilitated by the absence of verification.

The CNIL (French data protection authority) may also intervene if data collected under DAC7 does not comply with GDPR requirements, particularly regarding data minimisation and retention periods.

Verify Your Sellers' SIRENs with lebot.in

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does DAC7 apply to small marketplaces?

Yes, as long as the platform facilitates transactions between sellers and buyers and some sellers exceed the thresholds (30 transactions or €2,000 in annual revenue). The size of the operator is not an exemption criterion.

Does a foreign seller without a SIREN need to be reported?

Yes. Sellers without French registration but who exceed the thresholds must be reported using their tax identification number in their country of residence. The absence of a SIREN does not exempt from the obligation — it simply changes the identifier used.

How do you verify the SIREN of a seller who has no website?

If the seller has no website, verification relies on documents provided at onboarding (Kbis, INPI extract) and manual cross-referencing with the registry. The lebot.in URL-to-SIREN tool is specifically designed for sellers with a web presence.

How often must declarations be made?

The DAC7 declaration is annual. It covers data from the previous calendar year and must be submitted to the DGFiP before 31 January. However, verification data must be collected and kept up to date on an ongoing basis.

Does DAC7 also apply to B2B platforms?

Yes, as long as the platform facilitates commercial transactions between third parties. A B2B e-commerce marketplace falls within the scope of DAC7 in the same way as a B2C marketplace, provided transactions exceed the reporting thresholds.

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