Private Traders to be Struck Off the Trade Register

The National Board of Patents and Registration will remove private traders from the Trade Register. This concerns private traders that have been entered into the Register before 1994 but whose personal details under Section 3a of the Trade Register Act have not been registered. The striking-off procedure is based on the provision on entry into force of the Act of 16 March 2001 on the Amendment of the Trade Register Act (245/2001).

The procedure only concerns private traders and not, for example, limited companies, general partnerships and limited partnerships.

In April 2004, we sent an enquiry to approximately 11,000 private traders that are subject to our striking-off procedure (please see the list below) to invite them to report the following personal details, not later than on 14 May 2004:

• full name
• personal identity code (or date of birth if the person does not have a Finnish personal identity code)
• address
• citizenship

You can report the personal details in two ways:

1) By writing to National Board of Patents and Registration, Trade Register, P.O. Box 1150, FI-00101 Helsinki, or by faxing to +358 (0)9 6939 5602.

Please write the business name, Trade Register Number or Business ID and the name, telephone number or other contact detail of the person reporting the details and then sign your notification.

2) By using form Y6 provided by the Business Information System (click here for the forms). On the form, you can at the same time also report other amendments to your Register entries. Please note that notifications concerning new auxiliary business names are subject to a charge.

If private traders do not report themselves, a public notice will be published in the Trade Register Gazette in early autumn to invite them to report their personal details before an appointed date. Private traders, who still after the public notice do not report themselves, will be removed from the Register in December.

Unified Business Activities

If a natural person is entered as a trader into the Register entries of more than one private trader, the business activities are brought together to a single unit, which is given a Business Identity Code. The lines of business are then combined and business names of the unified business activities are transferred to be auxiliary business names for the new unit. Later business activities are unified with business activities that were registered earlier, if the trader does not inform the Trade Register to do otherwise. You can let us know how to unify your business activities when you report your personal details to us.

For further details, please contact:

Ulpu Malinen +358 (0)9 6939 5629
Marjut Pohjolainen +358 (0)9 6939 5313
Kirsi Leotta +358 (0)9 6939 5240
Tiina Mensonen +358 (0)9 6939 5254