The Danish Business Authority (Erhvervsstyrelsen)

History of the Danish Business Register

The Danish Business Authority was established on 1 January 2012.

It has approximately 500 employees. It has a broad portfolio of tasks and responsibilities, which overall should make it easier and more attractive to do business in Denmark. The Business Authority operates in many fields - from planning law and rural development to digitisation, effective supervision and monitoring of funds, companies, money laundering, accounting, auditing, export and EU checks. It is responsible for the Central Business Register (CVR), which is the state’s main register for information on all Danish companies.

The Business Authority is part of the Danish Ministry of Business and Growth (Erhvervsministeriet).

What does the Danish Business Register offer?

On erhvervsstyrelsen.dk, you can find information on all the Authority’s areas of work, including the Danish Business Register CVR.dk.

CVR.dk on the Virk portal is the centralised entry point for information and data on all businesses in Denmark. Regardless of the type of business, you can find information on both the business itself (also known as the legal entity) and its production units. The Register also provides information on founders, owners and managers.

For certain types of business – in particular public limited-liability companies and private limited-liability companies – you can find more information: accounts, facts and reports on the business and the people who manage it.

What information does the Central Business Register contain:

The company’s registration (CVR) number
Name and address
Date of establishment and winding-up where appropriate
Type of business
Indication of advertising protection where appropriate
Credit information
Sector and sub-sectors where appropriate
Contact information where appropriate
Number of employees where appropriate
Fully liable partners, founders, owners and managers
- Name and address
- Registration (CPR or CVR) number (CPR numbers cannot be passed on to private individuals)
Associated production units
- Production unit number
- Name and address
- Date of establishment and winding-up where appropriate
- Indication of advertising protection where appropriate
- Sector and sub-sectors where appropriate
- Contact information where appropriate
- Number of employees where appropriate

How do I search the Danish Business Register?

In CVR on Virk, you can carry out individual company searches and search/filter on the basis of a whole series of parameters, such as company name, name of a person, company registration number, production unit number, address of company, production unit or person. You can find basic data on all companies registered in the Central Business Register.

On the page Sådan søger du in CVR-Data you can find help to search for company information in the Central Business Register.

A number of solutions are available for larger quantities of data from the Central Business Register, such as ‘system-to-system access’ and ‘CVR webservices’. Click here for more information.

Is it free of charge to access the Danish Business Register?

Documents and services from the Central Business Register which do not require manual processing are free of charge. These are:

Various displays
Accounts
System-to-system access and CVR webservices

A number of documents require manual processing and are subsequently invoiced. However, the products are exempt from VAT:

Added signature: DKK 120
Older accounts on microfilm or from remote archives: DKK 300
Registration certificate: DKK 300
Change of name certificate: DKK 500
Merger plan: DKK 150
Minutes of annual general meeting: DKK 150
Documentation on capital: DKK 150
Copy of registration form: DKK 150
Management statement: DKK 150
Report on subsequent acquisitions: DKK 150
Report on self-financing DKK 150
Demerger plan: DKK 150
Articles of association: DKK 150

These prices are valid from 5 December 2014.

How reliable are the documents in the register?

Section 14 of the Companies Act transposes Article 3 of the First Company Law Directive into Danish company law, and describes how the records can be relied upon. Section 14 of the Companies Act states:

‘It is considered that information published on the Danish Business Authority’s IT system has come to the knowledge of third parties. Point 1. However this does not apply to transactions carried out within 16 days of being made public, provided it is shown that a third party could not have had knowledge of the circumstances that were made public.

As long as they have not been published on the Danish Business Authority’s IT system, the circumstances that are to be registered and made public cannot be enforced against third parties, unless it is shown that the third parties had knowledge of them. The fact that circumstances of this kind have not yet been made public does not prevent a third party from proceeding on the basis of them.’

Responsibility for the accuracy of the records

The notifier is responsible for the accuracy of the reported information, see Section 8 of the Notification Order (anmeldelsesbekendtgørelsen), and Section 15(2) of the Companies Act. The notifier may be criminally liable if the notification was not lawfully made, or if the reported information is incorrect.

The Danish Business Authority does not verify the accuracy of the reported information, but records the information that is reported to it. This is the case regardless of whether what is at issue is a manual registration or a self-registration conducted on Virk.dk.

The Danish Business Authority may be liable for damages for use of reported information or documents that are incorrect due to a management factor, such as a processing error.

Business registers in EU countries