Traffic · France
Avis de contravention — one notice, forty-five days
A French fine does not negotiate with you in stages. Everything you can do — pay, contest, name whoever was driving — happens inside the same forty-five days, and when they run out the amount rises by operation of law.
How serious: needs actionAlso called: amende forfaitaire, PV, contravention, avis ANTAI
This is the notice of a minor offence, almost always a road traffic one, carrying a fixed fine. It comes from ANTAI on behalf of the Officier du ministère public, or directly from the police force that recorded the offence.
Three amounts are printed on it: a reduced one for prompt payment, the ordinary fixed amount, and the increased amount that applies if nothing is done. The last of these is not a threat — article 529-2 makes it happen automatically.
Contesting is called a requête en exonération and goes to the service the notice names. For an offence caught by a camera, article 529-10 makes it admissible only if it is sent by registered letter on the attached form with one of the documents that article lists, or with proof of a consignation.
Who sends it
ANTAI, the national agency that processes offences, on behalf of the Officier du ministère public — or the police nationale, the gendarmerie or a police municipale that recorded the offence.
A notice with the ANTAI letterhead or a police stamp headed 'avis de contravention'; a numéro d'avis and a clé de contrôle used to pay online; the date and place of the offence and the article of the Code de la route; three amounts side by side; and a detachable formulaire de requête en exonération.
The deadline
45 days from the sending of the notice
Forty-five days. Article 529-1 of the Code de procédure pénale counts them from the recording of the offence or, where the notice is sent afterwards, from that sending; article 529-2 gives the same period for a requête en exonération. A period ending on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday runs to the next working day (art. 801).
If you do nothing
Article 529-2: without payment or a request inside the forty-five days, the fine is increased by operation of law and recovered for the Public Treasury under a title made enforceable by the ministère public. No decision is taken and nothing is sent first — the increased amount was printed on the notice from the start.
Compute your date
The rule above is what the law sets. Put in the dates on your own letter and it becomes a date.
How it escalates
- 01The fine becomes an amende forfaitaire majorée by operation of law, recovered under an enforceable title (Code de procédure pénale, art. 529-2).
- 02A new notice arrives, and from then the period to contest is governed by article 530, not by the forty-five days.
- 03The Treasury may enforce, including by a saisie administrative à tiers détenteur on a bank account.
- 04Where the offence carries points on a French licence, they are removed once the fine is paid or becomes definitive.
How to respond
The procedure below is what makes a response count: which service, which form, which enclosure, and inside which period. Whether the offence was committed is a separate question.
Response types
- Send a requête en exonérationRequête en exonération to the Officier du ministère public · Code de procédure pénale, articles 529-2 and 529-10 · Formulaire de requête en exonération attached to the notice
- Name the actual driverDesignation of the person who was driving · Code de procédure pénale, article 529-10 · Formulaire attached to the notice, or the ANTAI online service
- Pay, or show a payment madePayment of the fine, or a record of a payment already made · Code de procédure pénale, article 529-1
Where and how
- The ANTAI online service, which records the submission with its date and issues a reference — it needs the numéro d'avis and the clé de contrôle.
- A lettre recommandée avec avis de réception, which article 529-10 requires for offences recorded by an automated device.
- Ordinary post, which proves neither the date of sending nor arrival.
- The telephone number on the notice, which files nothing.
What to attach
- The original notice, or the part of it the form says to return.
- Proof of the consignation, where article 529-10 requires one.
- The récépissé of a complaint for theft or destruction of the vehicle, where that is the ground.
- The documents evidencing the sale of the vehicle, where that is the ground.
What makes it count
Everything runs on the same forty-five days from the sending of the notice. A payment counts when the service named receives it; a requête counts when that service receives it, by registered letter with the required enclosure where article 529-10 applies.
Common questions
Does contesting cost money?
For an offence recorded by an automated device, article 529-10 makes the request admissible only if it is accompanied by one of the documents it lists or by proof of a consignation equal to the amount of the fine. The consignation is not a payment of the fine and does not remove points.
The car is registered to me but I was not driving.
Article 529-10 provides for naming the person presumed to have been driving, with their identity and the reference of their driving licence. That designation is made on the form or through the ANTAI service, inside the same forty-five days.
I live abroad and the notice reached me late.
Article 529-1 counts the forty-five days from the sending of the notice where it was sent afterwards, not from your reading of it. The date of sending is on the notice; if it arrived late, that is a fact to state in the requête, and it is a question for a lawyer whether it helps.
What is the reduced amount?
The notice prints it, together with the date up to which it applies. Paying it settles the fine at the lower figure; it does not change anything else about the offence.
Sources
Facts verified against the sources below on 10 September 2026.