Service providers from Germany, the EU and equivalent states (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway) may complete procedures and formalities within the scope of the Services Directive (Directive 2006/123/EC of the european parliament and of the council on services in the internal market), which are necessary for the start up and exercise of the service, via the Points of Single Contact. This means the Point of Single Contact informs about the required formalities and acts as an intermediary in the procedure, at the service provider's request.
Description
The Point of Single Contact provides basic information for service providers and recipients of services, e.g. regarding:
- requirements, procedures and formalities for the start up and exercise of services
- contact details of the competent authorities
- legal remedies in case of a dispute
- associations and organisations which can help
The service provider may complete procedures and formalities via the Points of Single Contact within the scope of the Service Directive. This encompasses declarations, registrations and the application for licenses with the competent authorities, including the application to be registered in public registers, professional rolls or databases.
The Point of Single Contact supports the service providers in procedures and formalities related to the service, not only in the startup stage.
It receives the whole correspondence about the procedure and forwards it to the competent authority and to the applicant.
Prerequisites
The service provider must be a national of a EU member state or equivalent state (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway) or the business with own legal personality must have its company domicile in one of these states or have been founded there.
The Point of Single Contact also handles purely national cases.
The business activity needs to fall into the scope of the Service Directive.
The directive applies to a broad range of service branches, which is not exclusively defined. Generally it applies to all services which may be traded in the market. Included are trade, catering, crafts, IT-services, research and development, business services and technical services, consulting and the construction industry.
However, the Services Directive has some exceptions and clarifications in order to protect particularly sensitive areas or areas covered by other legislation. For example labour law, contract and criminal law are excluded, but also areas such as health, social services, transport and financial services.
If you enter your request in the Dienstleistungsportal Bayern (www.dienstleistungsportal.bayern.de) in the section "Formalities", you will get information whether it falls into the scope of the services directive and whether you may therefore complete the procedures and formalities related to the profession, which are necessary for the start up and exercise of the service, via the Point of Single Contact.
If you select a location under "Localization" the contact details of the responsible authority and, if applicable, locally valid information will be displayed.