Bulgaria: new national Commercial Register

A new national Commercial Register has come into effect from 1 January 2008, replacing the commercial registries at every district court.

The new Commercial Register is managed by the Registry Agency within the Ministry of Justice. The change is introduced by new legislation implementing the First EU Company Law Directive.

The new registration procedure is therefore administrative and not court driven, and is intended to simplify and speed up the registration process as well as easing the burden on the Bulgarian judicial system.

Changes include:

• requiring business which have already registered with the district courts to re-register by 31 December 2010. If they fail to do so the sole proprietors and the branches of foreign commercial entities are automatically wounded up of the Commercial Register, while the companies are automatically involved in a liquidation procedure.
• maintaining the Commercial Register as a single, centralised electronic database comprising Register files (divided as to circumstances entered and disclosed deeds) and a reserved business name list
• enabling businesses to apply for registration electronically using electronic signatures according to the requirements of the Electronic Document and Signature Act
• replacing the requirement for acts relating to commercial registration to be published in the State Gazette with a requirement for publication in the Commercial Register
• introducing a standard identification code for every business registered in the Commercial Register. Upon re-registration business is excluded from the present BULSTAT register and its BULSTAT code becomes its new standard identification code
• enabling company names to be unique throughout Bulgaria rather than just within the relevant district court region

The Commercial Register can be accessed free of charge by anyone at http://www.brra.bg and at any local office of the Registry Agency. Using the business’s standard identification code or the names of its partners or members, members of the public can instantly check its current or historic standing, view its circumstances or find out whether a document has been disclosed.

On request, the Registry Agency will also provide instant certification of a business’s good standing, of any business name it has reserved, as well as certifying excerpts of entries or disclosures over a particular period, the disclosure of certain acts, the occurrence of certain circumstances or any documents referring to them.

Law: Commercial Register Act, Ordinance on Keeping, Storage and Access to the Commercial Register