Opening a voluntary auction house (OVV) in 2026

To open a voluntary auction house (OVV), you must file a prior declaration with the Conseil des maisons de vente, prove professional capacity to direct sales, open an account dedicated to sellers' funds, take out professional liability cover and set up a financial guarantee. The licensing regime disappeared in 2023.

You want to create an auction house, run public auctions of movable goods, or move an existing business towards voluntary sales. The subject comes up often in our discussions with auctioneers, gallery owners and experts who want to take the plunge. The good news: the path is simpler than before, but it remains tightly framed, because you will be holding other people's money. Here, in order, is what you need to secure.

Access to the activity no longer goes through a licence. Since decree no. 2023-119 of 20 February 2023, the licensing regime created by law no. 2000-642 of 10 July 2000 has been replaced by a simple prior declaration sent to the Conseil des maisons de vente (CMV).

In practice, the operator files its declaration with the Council's services. The declaration is registered, without an authorisation decision from the CMV, as soon as the operator meets the legal conditions. The Council therefore no longer grants a discretionary licence: it registers, and you may operate.

Our reading. This shift from licence to declaration does not mean anything goes. If a substantive condition is missing (dedicated account, insurance, capacity), the declaration grants no valid right and you operate unlawfully. The control has moved downstream, not been lightened. Prepare a complete file, as if a licence were still required.

Directing a public auction of movable goods is not open to just anyone. Article L321-4 of the Commercial Code makes the direction of sales subject to a professional qualification: a diploma, or recognised experience, allowing the person to direct an auction.

In practice, this qualified person is most often a commissaire de justice authorised for voluntary sales, or a holder of the required diplomas. An auction house can therefore be carried by a company, provided that within it a duly qualified person assumes the effective direction of the sales.

This is the heart of the system, and the point we secure first in our files. Article L321-6 of the Commercial Code imposes three protections, because an auction house collects the proceeds of sales on behalf of the sellers.

The dedicated account prevents any mixing of the company's cash with sellers' money. The financial guarantee (insurance or surety) serves to represent to sellers the funds collected, should the operator default. These three items are not formalities: they condition the very lawfulness of the activity.

The underestimated risk. Many founders reason like an ordinary business and run sale proceeds through the company's current account. That is the mistake to avoid: sellers' funds must stay strictly separate, on the dedicated account, and be guaranteed. It is also what an audit looks at.

The obligation does not stop at launch. The conditions under which the continuing training obligation has been met are declared to the Conseil des maisons de vente by 31 January each year at the latest.

In other words, from the first full year of activity, you must complete your continuing training and declare compliance to the CMV before the end of January. It is a recurring deadline to put in your compliance calendar, just like a tax filing obligation.

The activity is most often carried out through a commercial company (SAS, SARL or another form suited to your project and the number of partners). The choice of form depends on your governance, your director's social security status and your growth plans.

The decisive factor remains the handling of sellers' funds. Because handling funds imposes the financial guarantee and the strict separation of third-party funds set out in article L321-6, the structure must be designed from the outset to trace these flows: a separate dedicated account, accounting that clearly separates the company's own funds from third-party funds, and clear agreements with sellers.

Steps to open an OVV in 2026#

• Define the legal form of the company and draft it (articles, governance, director).
• Identify the qualified person who will direct the sales (capacity, art. L321-4).
• Open the bank account dedicated exclusively to sellers' funds.
• Take out professional liability cover.
• Set up the financial guarantee (insurance or surety) representing the funds.
• File the prior declaration with the Conseil des maisons de vente.
• Organise, from the first year, the continuing training and its declaration before 31 January.

A professional qualified for voluntary sales asks us to structure a future auction house, with a capital-contributing partner. Two sticking points come up almost systematically in this type of file: drafting the articles, which must leave the effective direction of sales to the qualified person, and the accounting articulation between the company's own cash and the sellers' dedicated account. We first settle the financial guarantee and the dedicated account, then only afterwards the declaration to the CMV. The order of operations matters as much as the documents themselves.

To go further on the accounting and tax specifics of this profession (third-party funds, VAT on commissions, escrow), we detail our dedicated support on our chartered accountant for auctioneers and auction houses page, where we explain how we secure the separation of funds and the day-to-day steering of an OVV.