According to § 14 of the Trade, Commerce and Industry Regulation Act (GewO), tradespeople must report certain processes to the municipality. These include the registration, re-registration and de-registration
- of a trade,
- a branch office or
- a dependent branch office.
The trade register lists all commercial businesses in the respective municipality with the data they have reported. Public and non-public bodies as well as private individuals can obtain information from the trade register on request if they have a corresponding interest. The basic data of the trader (name, business name, business address, reported activity) is generally accessible, for further data information a legal interest is required. The consent of the person concerned is not required for the forwarding of the data.
The trade register is not a public register such as the commercial register, register of cooperatives or register of associations. You therefore have no legal claim to the disclosure of data. It is at the discretion of the competent authority whether it provides you with the information.
The information corresponds to what was reported to the trade registration office at the time the information was provided. The authority accepts no liability for the accuracy and completeness of the information. No information is provided on businesses that have been deregistered.
The trade register with the basic data of tradespeople is also made available on the Internet by some municipalities. In some cases, this basic data is also published in a business directory or business directory, a list of companies organized by sector.