A commercial activity is any legal, profit-oriented and long-term form of self-employment. This excludes liberal professions (e.g. doctors, solicitors, architects, liberal scientific, artistic and literary professions) and agricultural and forestry (primary production).
As a central administrative law governing trade and industry, the GewO (German Commerce Regulation Act) provides a regulatory framework for all professional activity. The GewO is also an important basis of monitoring of trade under public law.
The GewO distinguishes between:
- trades, which are only subject to notification,
- trade requiring a licence, such as the security industry, insurance brokers and consultants, financial investment brokers, loan brokers, real estate brokers, developers and construction supervisors, the pawn broking trade, auctioneering and the operation of gaming halls,
- trades subject to supervision, such as travel agencies, purchase and sale of motor vehicles, precious metals, gems and jewellery, dating services and matchmakers as well as the
- itinerant trade.
You can obtain the trade licences from the concerned authorities either by yourself or through the Point of Single Contact.
Trade register notification
(This link leads to a range of information that is only available in German)
Requirement for licensing a trade subject to supervision
(This link leads to a range of information that is only available in German)
If you want to do a trade subject to supervision, you must apply for licence prior to registration of the trade. If they are personal requirements, the trader must fulfil them by himself, while the managing representative does it in the case of establishing a legal entity (e.g. limited liability company (GmbH), incorporated company (AG)).
Requirements for licence are:
- Reliability of the Applicant: it is assessed on the basis of a criminal record certificate, excerpt from a central trade register or a clearance certificate from the revenue office.
- Economic performance: the Applicant must live in proper economic conditions. Disadvantages include, e.g. negative rating from credit investigation company or personal bankruptcy.
- The commercial premises must be suitable for the business operations.
Mandatory membership of a chamber of commerce
Traders, who are based in the State of Rheinland-Pfalz are subject to mandatory membership in one of the Chambers of Commerce of the State. Artisans must be members of the Chambers of Crafts of the State, while the other traders must be member of one of the Chambers of Industry and Commerce of the State.
An exception is made for entrepreneurs from EU Member States, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, who are involved in cross-border activities without establishing business here: they only need to notify the chambers of their activities prior to their start.