Researching a company: Handelsregister, Firmenbuch, Zefix

You have a company name or a domain and want to know more: legal form, registered office, management, size. The most important sources are public and partly free of charge. This article shows where to search in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, what each source provides and where it ends. How to get into conversation with a company afterwards is described in Approaching identified companies.

Start with the domain

Usually the starting point is a domain, for example from an analysis of website visits. Then proceed as follows:

1. Open the website and look for the legal notice (Impressum). In Germany, § 5 DDG requires, for commercial digital services, among other things the name and address, and for legal entities the legal form and authorised representatives, the type and number of the register entry and, if available, the VAT identification number.
2. Note the exact company name with legal form and the register number.
3. Search for it in the relevant register and compare name, registered office and number.

The legal notice is the quickest source, but it is not officially verified. The register is the more binding cross-check. On the question of how a company results from a domain, see also PTR record: how a hostname becomes a company.

Germany: Handelsregister and Unternehmensregister

Two portals, two purposes:

According to the EU e-Justice portal on Germany, inspection is possible without showing a particular interest. Register extracts and documents such as articles of association can be retrieved free of charge in electronic form on the portal. Simple or certified copies are requested for a fee from the competent register court, and the portal does not state the amount. In the Unternehmensregister, according to the same page, retrieving accounting documents is free of charge. Only for deposited balance sheets of micro-enterprises is there a charge of 1 euro per balance sheet.

In practice: search for the name and filter by register type (HRA for partnerships, HRB for corporations) and federal state. The hits show registered office, register court and number. The register extract names authorised representatives, business purpose and capital.

Austria: Firmenbuch and WKO

The Firmenbuch (company register) is kept by the courts. According to the EU e-Justice portal on Austria, there are three ways in:

• Brief information: free of charge, with the most important details on a company, without registration.
• Firmenbuch extract: from the main register with the current data, and on request also with deleted data. According to the portal, queries are subject to a fee. The page does not state amounts. Current fees are given by the Ministry of Justice on justiz.gv.at and by the billing offices.
• Documents from the document collection, also subject to a fee.

You can order via JustizOnline (with registration and online payment) or via a billing office commissioned by the ministry. You search by Firmenbuch number, company name or the name of a person with a function, such as the managing director.

A free supplement is the directory WKO Firmen A-Z. There you search by industry and place. It does not replace the Firmenbuch but helps with classification.

Switzerland: Zefix

Zefix is the federal government's central company index. According to the description on opendata.swiss, there is a web application, a public interface and an app. You will find the web application at zefix.admin.ch. You search for the company name and receive the company's register data.

Note the restriction named by the canton of Zug: according to the canton of Zug, the data in Zefix is without guarantee and has no legal effect. Binding are the certified register extract of the competent commercial register office and the publication in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SHAB). Anyone who needs a certified extract contacts the commercial register office of the canton. Your canton states the costs for this.

Supplementary sources

Checking the VAT ID. With the VIES service of the EU Commission you check whether a VAT identification number of an EU member state is valid. This helps with invoices and as a plausibility check: does the number fit the company and country? Note that VIES queries the national databases and an error can also be due to a malfunction. Switzerland is not part of VIES.

LinkedIn. The company page shows industry, size class and number of employees as self-reported, as well as public posts. The information comes from the company itself and is not verified. For individuals: they are not a source for automatically assigning website visits. More on this under Cold outreach in B2B.

Own website and press. Who is the contact person, which references does the company name, are there job ads for a topic that fits your offer? These sources show need, the registers show the basic data.

What to take into the CRM

Take over only what you need: company name with legal form, domain, registered office, register number and the source of the information with the date. Persons from registers are personal data, even if publicly viewable. How to file the data cleanly and avoid duplicates is covered in Getting website visits into the CRM.

Limits of the research

• Sole traders and freelancers are often not in the commercial register or Firmenbuch.
• Companies with identical names are common. Rely on the register number and registered office.
• Group structures: the visiting company and the contracting party can be different entities.
• Currency: entries lag behind the facts, and the website is often faster.

Frequently asked questions

Is research in the commercial register free of charge? Retrieving register extracts and documents via the portal is free of charge in Germany according to the EU e-Justice portal. Certified copies cost fees. In Austria only the brief information is free. Current amounts are given by the registers.

How do I find the company behind a website? Via the legal notice. It contains the company name, legal form and register number. Then check these details in the register.

May I use data from the register for advertising? Company data is public, but using it for outreach is subject to its own rules. For individuals, data protection and competition law apply, see Cold outreach in B2B. This information does not replace legal advice.