German company extract: how to verify a company with the Handelsregister

In short: the German equivalent of the company extract (visura camerale) is the Handelsregister (commercial register), which since 1 August 2022 can be consulted online without registration and without access fees for entries and documents, thanks to the law transposing the digitalisation directive (DiRUG). For financial statements and notices there is the Unternehmensregister; for insolvency procedures there is the portal insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de, also free of charge. The step the register does not take for you is the comparison with sanctions lists, PEPs and negative media: you will find it in the Veryfy foreign company check at 14.90€.

What is the Handelsregister and what does it contain?

According to the European e-Justice portal, the Handelsregister collects sole traders, OHG, KG, GmbH, AG, KGaA and SE. Cooperatives and professional partnerships are in separate registers (Genossenschaftsregister and Partnerschaftsregister). The portal handelsregister.de gives access to the registers of all German Länder and to register notices.

The register is kept locally by the courts. On the portal you can search with the standard or advanced search, the latter also including a list of legal forms. The portal specifies that the structured data are a "non-binding" service: for evidentiary value you need the extract from the competent court.

Is the German extract free?

Yes, for online consultation. A note from the Chamber of Commerce (IHK) confirms that since 1 August 2022 entries and notices of the Handelsregister can be read "free of charge and without prior registration", and that all entries and documents filed are made available. A legal commentary on the reform states that consultation fees are no longer charged for register data and documents, and cites the Minister of Justice: register extracts have been free since 1 August 2022.

Beware of outdated notes: the e-Justice page on Germany still lists an electronic extract at 4.50€ and 1.50€ per document, but itself specifies that these fees ceased on 1 August 2022. If a site asks you for money to "download the extract", check who it is. The Unternehmensregister portal explicitly warns about unsolicited payment requests linked to register entries, including those claiming to come from the European Commission: they are fraudulent.

How do I verify a German company, step by step?

1. Ask the counterparty for its full business name, registered office, register number and VAT number (USt-IdNr.). The registered office helps identify the court that keeps the register.
2. On handelsregister.de search by name, location, type of register, register number and court (according to e-Justice, these are the criteria of the standard search). Check that name and registered office match the invoice and contract.
3. Open the entries and the filed documents: they can now be consulted without an access fee.
4. On the Unternehmensregister search for financial statements and notices. According to e-Justice, the accounting documents can be consulted free of charge.
5. Check the VAT number on the European Commission's VIES service, which you also need for intra-EU invoicing.
6. Search the company on the insolvency portal (see below) before shipping goods on credit.
7. For sanctions, PEPs and negative media use the foreign company check.

What do you want to know, where do you find it, free or paid?

How do I check whether a German company is in insolvency?

The official publications are on insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de, the insolvency procedures portal, free of charge according to e-Justice, with data from 1 April 2002. However, the portal is designed for procedures in progress: e-Justice indicates that the register covers only procedures still open, and the German regulation on publications (InsBekV, § 3) provides for deletion at the latest six months after the closure of the proceedings. A company that does not appear today may therefore have been insolvent in the past: also look at deletions and changes of name in the register.

Preventive restructuring procedures (StaRUG) have a dedicated site, restrukturierungsbekanntmachung.de, active since 17 July 2022. For the order and logic of the equivalent Italian procedures see how to know whether a company has gone bankrupt.

Who is the beneficial owner of a German company?

It is stated in the Transparenzregister. Following the judgments of the EU Court of Justice of 22 November 2022, unlimited public access is no longer provided for: a German law firm (Görg, January 2026) recalls that consulting third-party data requires a justification and a legitimate interest. Do not expect to open it as you would the Handelsregister. To reconstruct who controls a company see how to verify who controls a company.

Which risk signals should I look for?

None is proof on its own, but each deserves a question to the counterparty:

• business name or registered office on the invoice different from those in the register;
• register number or USt-IdNr. that cannot be found, or that belong to another entity;
• financial statements not filed or very outdated;
• insolvency notices, or a sudden request to pay to a new IBAN (see fake supplier and IBAN change scam);
• requests for payment of "register fees" from sites that are not the official portals.

The general picture on foreign countries is in how to check a foreign client before exporting.

Other European registers

Same logic, other countries: United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Spain and Poland.

What does the Veryfy foreign company check add?

The register describes the company; it does not compare it with international sanctions lists. The foreign company check for Germany starts from the VAT number (USt-IdNr., DE + 9 digits) or the register number and returns register data, NACE sector and contacts if registered, summary financial statements where available (employees, revenues, net equity, total assets) and the search of the name on sanctions lists, politically exposed persons and negative media, all in Italian.

For accountants. If you have clients that export to Germany or buy from German suppliers, you can attach a check on the counterparty to the file, without subscription and without registration: you pay for the single check, for example the foreign company check at 14.90€ before a significant supply or an advance payment.

Sources

• European e-Justice portal, Business registers: Germany (accessed 11/11/2026)
• Handelsregister, register portal (accessed 11/11/2026)
• Unternehmensregister (accessed 11/11/2026)
• IHK Lahn-Dill, Free online access (accessed 11/11/2026)
• Steuerschroeder, DiRUG and the online Handelsregister (accessed 11/11/2026)
• e-Justice portal, Insolvency register Germany (accessed 11/11/2026)
• InsBekV, § 3 Deletion periods (accessed 11/11/2026)
• Görg, Transparenzregister: more clarity, but new practical uncertainties (accessed 11/11/2026)

Veryfy is not affiliated with the registers and institutions cited. The indications on insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de come from e-Justice and the InsBekV.