On January 1, 2015, an amendment to Act no. 455/1991 Coll., on trade enterprises (the “Trade Act”) took effect.
The new wording of the Trade Act should relieve entrepreneurs of some of the administrative requirements they previously faced when making submissions to trade licence authorities. Under a significant change to Article 46 of the Trade Act, entrepreneurs making repeated submissions to declare a trade or apply for a licence will not have to provide proof of unchanged facts which they previously reported to trade licence authorities when applying for a licence or reporting changes. This covers all documents provided after January 1, 2015, especially criminal record extract and documents proving professional capacity (e.g. educational certificates, evidence of qualifications, etc.) or legal use of the premises where the entrepreneur’s registered office is located.
Another significant change under the amendment is the restriction of the entrepreneur’s personal data to be published in the Trade Register. From January 2, 2015, the person’s permanent address and place of residence, whether within and outside the Czech Republic, will not be publicly accessible. This information will only be made available in cases of proven legal interest. Further, e-copies of relevant documents will be digitalised, but not included in the public record. The data of entrepreneurs whose trade licences have expired will cease to be publicly available four years after the expiry date. Only persons with a proven legal interest will be able to obtain this data.
In line with changes to the Business Corporations Act, which states that a company’s statutory body may be a company or other legal person, the Trade Register entry must now identify not just the statutory body of a legal person, but also the details of the particular legal person serving as that statutory body.