Methodology
Here we describe which sources our data comes from, what applies to public registers in Germany, how a record is created, which rules apply to its use and what the data cannot do.
Content last revised: 15 October 2026 · Czech data as of: 09/12/2026
Our German company database (as of 15 October 2026, 2,853,449 active businesses) draws on the following public sources: Overture Maps, Market Master Data Register (MaStR), GLEIF, company websites, HWK/BStBK directories.
Global open geodata with business locations, company names and contact details compiled from multiple sources.
Public register of the Federal Network Agency for electricity and gas market participants: company name, address, email and phone for registered market participants.
Public register of global Legal Entity Identifiers (LEI): company name, legal form and address.
Name, address and email address that businesses must state under § 5 DDG; often also a phone number and the company website.
Public directories of the Chambers of Skilled Crafts (HWK) and the Federal Chamber of Tax Consultants (BStBK).
The commercial register and the company register are public, but they are not a dataset to download. The law permits inspection “for information purposes by means of individual retrievals” (§ 9(1) HGB); we do not plan any bulk transfer of register data without a legal basis. The table below shows the main public sources and what applies to their use.
Scroll the table sideways.
| Source | What is public there | What applies to its use |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial register (Handelsregister) | Company name, legal form, registered office, business address, register court, register number and authorised representatives of registered merchants and companies | Anyone may inspect it through individual retrievals (§ 9(1) HGB). The register portal’s terms of use prohibit systematic retrievals for building parallel full or partial registers and limit the number of searches and views per hour. For looking up individual businesses, not a bulk source. |
| Company register (Unternehmensregister) | Access to register entries, financial statements and announcements (§ 8b HGB) | Inspection through individual retrievals (§ 9(6) HGB). Under its terms of use, retrieved register data may not be used to build a register of one’s own parallel to the commercial register. |
| Trade notifications | Name, business name, business address and notified activity may be made generally accessible by the authority (§ 14(5) GewO) | The data from trade notifications is purpose-bound; non-public bodies only receive further details if they credibly show a legal interest. There is no nationwide directory. |
| Legal notice details (Impressum) | Name, address, email address, register and register number that service providers must state themselves under § 5 DDG; often also a phone number | One of the sources used for the German database. For sole traders and freelancers, the details are personal data. |
| Company websites | Website address and description of the business’s own activity | One of the sources used for the German database. |
| Destatis | only aggregated figures, for example 3,543,865 businesses in reference year 2024 | for gauging market size; no information on individual businesses |
Freelancers and small traders, among others, are not entered in the commercial register. They have neither a register court nor a register number; as a rule, only what they publish themselves is public.
For the Czech Republic, we supply data from our own database of 4,404,295 economic entities (as of 09/12/2026). The identity data comes from official Czech registers:
Administrative Register of Economic Entities: company identification number (IČO), name, registered office, legal form, founding date and activity under NACE.
Entries of companies, governing bodies, trade licences.
VAT registration and flagging as an unreliable VAT payer.
Opened insolvency proceedings.
Contact details in the Czech database come from publicly accessible sources, mainly company websites. Figures per industry are shown on the page Data inventory.
This process applies to both our German and Czech databases.
Matching is automated and cannot be error-free. With identical or very similar names and no identification number on the website, the risk of incorrect matching is higher.
Several industries have official directories – the transport company file, the intermediary register, the market master data register, the registers of the professional chambers. They serve to check the licence or authorisation of an individual business and are not public address directories: the intermediary register’s website prohibits use of the data for advertising purposes, the physician register is not public, and information from the register of craftspeople is subject to conditions. What exists in which industry is described on the industry pages:
Background on the registers: German commercial register: which company data is public and WZ 2008: industry codes for target group lists. On marketing law: B2B cold outreach in Germany: what § 7 UWG allows.
If you find incorrect information in your own record, write to us; we will correct it.
Information in public registers is kept by the respective register authority. We correct our record; a permanent correction also requires a change in the register.
The Data inventory page shows which figures we publish, each with date and source.
