French Tertiary Decree: duties, deadlines, OPERAT and penalties

Decree no. 2019-771 of 23 July 2019, known as the Tertiary Decree or Éco Énergie Tertiaire scheme, mandates a reduction in final energy consumption for buildings hosting tertiary activities.

Two methods coexist, at the regulated party's choice:

• Relative (Crelat) — cut consumption by 40% by 2030, 50% by 2040 and 60% by 2050 against a full, representative reference year chosen between 2010 and 2022 (the original 2010-2019 window has been widened).
• Absolute (Cabs) — reach a consumption threshold in kWh/m²/year, set by order per activity category and climate zone.

The choice matters: on an already efficient building, the absolute threshold is often more attainable than a further 40% cut.

Both owners and tenants of buildings, parts of buildings or sets of buildings on the same land unit hosting tertiary activities over a cumulative floor area of at least 1,000 m² are covered.

Three traps come up every time:

• Mixed-use sites. Only the tertiary share counts, but it accumulates across the land unit — an industrial site with offices can be covered without anyone expecting it.
• The owner / tenant split. The duty is shared and allocated according to respective responsibilities, which has to be settled in the lease. A silent lease is a dispute waiting to happen.
• Crossing the threshold. Floor area growing past 1,000 m² during operation pulls the building into scope.

2030 is not the first deadline: the scheme is declaratory and annual.

• Every year, before 30 September, the regulated party files the previous calendar year's consumption on the OPERAT platform.
• The reference year must be declared and justified; it drives the whole relative calculation.
• The 2030, 2040 and 2050 targets are assessed on declared consumption, adjusted for weather.

In other words: the risk is not ten years away, it lands every year. A party that does not file is in breach immediately, regardless of actual energy performance.

The procedure is graduated, but it is real.

1. Formal notice to submit the data or produce an action plan, with a three-month deadline.
2. If the notice goes unanswered: naming publication on a government website — the name and shame mechanism.
3. Administrative fine capped at €1,500 for a natural person and €7,500 for a legal entity, per building and per breach.

The direct cost is not the real issue. The real exposure sits elsewhere: a naming publication that can be held against you in a tender, liability under the commercial lease, a valuation discount on an asset with no documented trajectory, and green financing refused.

OPERAT (the observatory for energy performance, renovation and action in the tertiary sector) is the platform run by ADEME where the annual filing happens.

What gets filed: the perimeter of regulated functional entities, floor areas, activity categories, consumption by energy carrier, the reference year and any modulation claims.

What actually sinks filings, in practice: a functional-entity split done in a hurry, a reference year that cannot be justified, and no traceability of assumptions from one year to the next.

The BACS Decree (no. 2020-887 of 20 July 2020, strengthened by decree no. 2023-259 of 7 April 2023) is a separate duty: it mandates fitting tertiary buildings with automation and control systems, where the Tertiary Decree mandates reaching an outcome.

Applicable deadlines:

• heating or cooling systems with nominal power above 290 kW: in force since 1 January 2025;
• power between 70 and 290 kW: postponed to 1 January 2030 by decree no. 2025-1343 of 26 December 2025 (it had been set at 1 January 2027).

The postponement eases the calendar, it does not remove the duty — nor the associated periodic inspection. And an installed BMS does not equal compliance: what gets assessed is the effective control class.

Sensia Compliance tools exactly that journey:

• building the asset register and splitting the regulated functional entities;
• computing the trajectory in relative and absolute terms, with weather adjustment;
• an automated BACS audit: observed control class, gap, non-conformities;
• an energy audit under the EN 16247 framework, plus a payback calculator for modulation claims;
• preparing the OPERAT filing data and compliance reports at portfolio level.

Filing on OPERAT remains your act: we produce the case, you submit it.

A €1,200 PoC on a site under 2,500 m² measures the real gap before you commit.

• Decree no. 2019-771 of 23 July 2019 (Éco Énergie Tertiaire scheme) — Légifrance
• Decree no. 2020-887 of 20 July 2020 and decree no. 2023-259 of 7 April 2023 (BACS) — Légifrance
• Decree no. 2025-1343 of 26 December 2025 (postponement of BACS, thermostat and pipe-insulation deadlines) — Légifrance
• The OPERAT platform — ADEME

This page is an explainer, not legal advice. If you are unsure whether you are covered, or about a modulation claim, have your analysis reviewed.