In this article we're going focus on what company information is available to the public for companies which are registered in Poland.
Where can you find company information?
In Poland, company information is held by 3 different bodies.
1) The Central Register and Information on Economic Activity (CEIDG) holds information on entrepreneurs who are sole traders (self-employed) or partners in a civil law partnership composed of natural persons.
The CEIDG is operated by the Ministry of Economic Development and can be accessed on the following link: https://wws.ceidg.gov.pl/. The website is free of charge and available in both Polish and English.
A search on CEIDG will offer the following information: NIP and REGON numbers, date of incorporation, registered address and contact details, types of activities (based on the Polish classification of activities), status of the economic activity, details of representatives (attorneys).
2) The National Court Register (NCR) is a centralized database operated by selected district courts situated in major Polish cities and consists of three separate registers:
- The register of entrepreneurs (CEIDG).
- The register of associations, other social and professional organisations, foundations and public healthcare institutions.
- The register of insolvent debtors. You can access the NCR via https://ekrs.ms.gov.pl/web/wyszukiwarka-krs/strona-glowna/index.html. The information in it is available in Polish.
The NCR provides the following information: KRS, NIP and REGON numbers, full legal company name, company category, type of register, class of company (e.g. private, public), date of incorporation, registered address, directors/signatories details.
3) The National Official Business Register (REGON) holds information for the following entities:
- legal persons,
- organizational entities without legal personality,
- natural persons running economic activities (including private farms),
- local units of entities mentioned above.
You can access the National Court Register website at: http://www.stat.gov.pl/regon/
Civil law partnerships can be found in the REGON Register if you do not find data in CEIDG.
The following information can be found in REGON: company category, full legal company name, registered address, type of register, date of incorporation, company category.
The REGON website is free of charge and only available in the Polish language.
How to search?
To research information on any of the above registers, you need to insert one of the following details: the company name, the KRS number, NIP number or REGON number. For REGON however, you cannot search by just using the company name.
On CEIDG, if a person was registered as a sole trader (self-employed) or as a partner in a civil law partnership before January 1, 2012, to search for the person you will need to input the person's PESEL number (a numeric symbol that uniquely identifies a specific individual registered in the PESEL database).
NIP (Numer Identyfikacji Podatkowej) is a number for taxation purposes
REGON (Rejestr Gospodarki Narodowej) is a number for national statistical purposes
KRS (Krajowy Rejestr Sadowy) is the National Court Register number
What different types of companies are there in Poland?
The main trading companies in Poland take one of the following structures:
- A spolka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia (sp. z. o. o) which means a limited liability company (LLC);
- A spolka akcyjna (S.A.) which means a joint stock company (JSC);
- A prosta spolka akcyna (PSA) which means a simple joint stock company (simple JSC);
- A spolka europejska (SE) which means a European company (EC);
- A spolka komandytowa (sp.k.) which means a limited partnership;
- A spolka komandytowo-akcyjna (S.K.A.) which means a limited joint stock partnership; and
- A spolka partnerska (sp.p.) which means a professional partnership.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.