Pursuant to § 14 of the Trade, Commerce and Industry Regulation Act (GewO), traders must notify the municipality of certain transactions. These include the registration, re-registration and de-registration
- of a trade,
- a branch office or
- a dependent branch office.
All commercial enterprises in the respective municipality are listed in the trade register with the data they have reported. Public and non-public bodies as well as private persons can obtain information from the trade register upon request if they have a corresponding interest. The basic data of the trader (name, business address, reported activity) are generally accessible, for data information beyond this a legal interest is required. The consent of the person concerned for the disclosure of the data is not required.
The trade register is not a public register such as the commercial, cooperative or association register. Therefore, you have no legal claim to communication of the data. It is at the discretion of the competent body whether it gives you the information.
The information provided corresponds to what has been reported to the Trade Registration Office up to the time the information is provided. The authority does not guarantee the accuracy and completeness of the information. No information is provided about deregistered businesses.
The trade register with the basic data of the tradesmen is partly made available on the Internet by the municipality. The basic data of the tradesmen are sometimes also published in a trade directory or yellow pages, a directory of companies sorted by industry.
If you select a location under "Localization" the contact details of the responsible authority and, if applicable, locally valid information will be displayed.