France’s Council of State has rejected an emergency application from crypto companies Paymium and Bull Bitcoin seeking to suspend the French decree implementing the European Union’s DAC8 crypto tax-reporting framework.
The decision, issued on September 14, 2026, in case No. 519158, concerns an emergency suspension procedure rather than the companies’ broader challenge to the legality of the French rules. The court concluded that the applicants had not established the required level of urgency to justify suspending the decree before the underlying case is decided.
The ruling means the French implementation of DAC8 remains in force. France’s Decree No. 2025-1276, published in December 2025, sets out reporting and due-diligence obligations for crypto-asset service providers under the French tax code.
Council of State Rejects Emergency Suspension
Paymium, together with Bull Bitcoin’s relevant entities Leonod and Satoshi Portal Inc., filed the emergency application on August 26, 2026. The companies asked the Council of State to temporarily suspend Decree No. 2025-1276 while their broader legal arguments were considered.
Their case included concerns about the collection, processing, verification and retention of users’ personal information, as well as its transmission to tax authorities. They also argued that the centralized storage of transaction information could increase the consequences of a potential data breach.
The court did not grant the requested suspension. Its ruling focused on the legal requirement of urgency in an emergency suspension proceeding. It stated that the applicants had not demonstrated that the alleged privacy impact, the potential data-leak risk or the claimed European-law issues created an urgent situation requiring the decree to be halted immediately.
Council of State jurisprudence database
The Court Did Not Decide the Full Legal Challenge
The distinction between the emergency application and the main lawsuit is important.
The September ruling did not determine whether the French decree is ultimately lawful. The court expressly rejected the emergency request because the required urgency had not been demonstrated and said there was therefore no need at this stage to rule on whether the applicants had raised a sufficiently serious legal doubt about the decree's legality.
Bull Bitcoin has separately challenged Decree No. 2025-1276 before the Council of State. The company says that proceeding seeks the annulment of the decree itself rather than merely an interim suspension. Bull Bitcoin has argued that the French implementation of DAC8 creates extensive reporting obligations and raises concerns about the proportionality and security of the resulting data collection.
That means the latest ruling does not close the broader legal dispute. The decree remains applicable while the substantive challenge proceeds.
What DAC8 Requires From Crypto Platforms
DAC8 is the EU’s eighth amendment to the Directive on Administrative Cooperation and expands tax-transparency rules to crypto-assets.
According to the European Commission, DAC8 requires reporting crypto-asset service providers to collect information about reportable transactions involving EU-resident users and provide that information to national tax authorities. The framework is designed to enable automatic exchange of relevant information between EU member states for tax-compliance purposes.
The rules entered into force on January 1, 2026, with data collection beginning from that date. The first reporting period covers transactions during 2026, and the first exchanges of information between EU tax authorities are scheduled to take place by September 30, 2027.
France's implementing decree has been in force since December 25, 2025. Article 21 of the decree states that its provisions enter into effect on January 1, 2026 and apply to transactions carried out from that date that are subject to reporting in 2027.
European Commission — DAC8 crypto-asset tax transparency
User Data Is Central to the Dispute
One of the main issues raised by the applicants concerns the amount and type of information that crypto service providers must collect.
France's decree requires providers to obtain information used to establish a user's tax residence. For individual crypto-asset users, Article 15 requires a self-certification of tax residence and provides for verification using information and documentation available to the provider. Existing users must provide the certification before January 1, 2027, according to the decree.
The companies challenging the rules have argued that accumulating extensive information about crypto users creates privacy and security concerns. Their emergency application specifically raised concerns about the storage of transaction data in a centralized register covering residents of EU member states.
The Council of State, however, found that these arguments did not establish the urgency required for an immediate suspension. The court also said that the applicants had not demonstrated that centralized storage would itself increase the probability of the data being compromised to the degree necessary for emergency relief.
Bull Bitcoin Says Its Main Case Continues
Following the ruling, Bull Bitcoin founder Francis Pouliot emphasized that the emergency proceeding and the broader annulment case are separate legal processes.
Pouliot said the September decision addressed the urgency requirement for the suspension request and did not resolve the substantive arguments raised against the decree. Bull Bitcoin has said its separate challenge seeking full annulment of the French DAC8 decree remains active.
The company's earlier legal filing describes the broader action as a challenge to Decree No. 2025-1276, which it says is the principal French measure implementing DAC8.
Bull Bitcoin’s DAC8 legal challenge
France’s DAC8 Rules Remain in Effect
For crypto platforms operating in France, the immediate practical result is that the decree remains applicable while the broader legal proceedings continue.
The European Commission says DAC8 covers a broad range of crypto-assets and requires reporting crypto-asset service providers to collect and verify information on reportable users and transactions. The framework is part of a wider international move toward automatic tax-information exchange involving crypto-assets.
The French decree also contains detailed procedures covering reporting obligations, user identification and tax-residence information. Its provisions therefore affect both crypto service providers and the customers using those platforms.
For users, the case highlights the difference between crypto transaction privacy and tax-reporting transparency. DAC8 is designed to give tax authorities greater visibility into reportable crypto activity, while the legal challenge questions aspects of how those requirements have been implemented in France.
The Legal Dispute Moves to the Next Stage
The Council of State's September 14 decision settles only the request for an emergency suspension. It does not provide a final ruling on the substantive arguments challenging Decree No. 2025-1276.
For now, French crypto service providers remain subject to the country's DAC8 implementation. At the EU level, the first reporting year is 2026, with the first cross-border exchanges of information expected by September 30, 2027.
The next major development will therefore come from the continuing substantive legal challenge. Until a later court decision changes the framework, France's DAC8 implementation remains operational and crypto-asset service providers must continue preparing for the reporting obligations established under the new rules.
