Czech Republic Company Lookup: Open Data by Statute

A Czech Republic company lookup runs through two ministries that do different things. The Ministerstvo spravedlnosti — the Ministry of Justice — holds the veřejný rejstřík a sbírka listin, the public register and the collection of deeds, at or.justice.cz, maintained by the regional courts. The Ministerstvo financí runs ARES at ares.gov.cz, which aggregates from source registers. This guide covers what each one is for, how Czech law defines the open data they publish, and which of the two holds the authoritative entry. If you need the Czech population rather than one company at a time, the Czech Republic company directory covers the same registered entities with industry, size and contact breakdowns attached, and the Czech Republic business database is the same file described as a dataset.

Czech Republic company lookup: the short version

• Czech law defines open data as data published in an open, machine-readable format whose manner and purpose of subsequent use is not restricted — a statutory definition, in Act No. 106/1999 Coll.
• The veřejné rejstříky are maintained by the krajské soudy, the regional courts, for entities seated in that court's district. Not by a central agency.
• The Act names six public registers. The obchodní rejstřík — the commercial register — is one of them, and a reader looking for a foundation or an institute is not in it.
• ARES aggregates and owns no data. The authoritative entry and the sbírka listin are at or.justice.cz.

Open data, as Czech law defines it

Most countries describe their open data in a policy. The Czech Republic defines it in a statute, and the definition is the reason this page exists. From § 3 of Act No. 106/1999 Coll. on free access to information:

"Otevřenými daty se rozumí informace zveřejňované způsobem umožňujícím dálkový přístup v otevřeném a strojově čitelném formátu, jejichž způsob ani účel následného využití není omezen a které jsou evidovány v národním katalogu otevřených dat."

Open data means information published in a manner allowing remote access, in an open and machine-readable format, whose manner nor purpose of subsequent use is restricted, and which is recorded in the national open data catalogue.

Read the middle clause twice, because it is doing something unusual. Způsob ani účel následného využití není omezen — neither the manner nor the purpose of subsequent use is restricted. Most open-data definitions speak about format and access: machine-readable, remotely reachable, no login. This one goes further and speaks about what you may do afterwards, and it does so by saying that nothing is restricted.

That is a statutory definition rather than a policy statement, and the distinction matters. A policy can be revised by the body that wrote it. A definition in an Act is the meaning the word carries in Czech law, and a dataset either meets it or is not open data within that meaning.

Two answers to the same question

Set that beside another EU member state and the contrast is exact, because both answers are written into national law and both concern the same question: what may a person do with a company register they were given for free?

The Belgium company lookup guide covers a state that publishes its whole register as open data and attaches a condition to the terms of use accepted before the file downloads. The FPS Economy states: "Personal data may not be reused for direct marketing purposes. They include, in particular, all data relating to a registered entity natural person."

The Czech Republic's statutory definition runs the other way: data is open data only where neither the manner nor the purpose of subsequent use is restricted.

Two member states. One writes a purpose restriction into the terms attached to its open data; the other writes the absence of purpose restrictions into the definition of the term. Neither is better and this page does not rank them. They are different national answers to the same question, arrived at under the same EU framework, and the fact that two answers exist is the point — a process built on one country's posture cannot be assumed to fit the other's. Anyone working across both needs to read each one's own words rather than carry an assumption across the border.

ARES owns no data

The practical warning on this page is short and it is the one most likely to save a reader a mistake.

ARES aggregates. It is run by the Ministry of Finance and it draws together information from source registers to give a consolidated view of an entity. That is a useful thing to be, and for a first look it is usually the fastest route.

But the authoritative entry is not there. The veřejný rejstřík and the sbírka listin — the collection of deeds, where the filed documents themselves live — are held by the Ministry of Justice at or.justice.cz. A reader who treats an ARES record as the filing has mistaken the index for the book.

None of that is a criticism of ARES. A signpost that pointed at itself would be a worse signpost. The rule is simply: use ARES to find, use or.justice.cz to rely, and go to the sbírka listin when you need the document rather than the summary.

Six registers, named in the Act

The word "company register" is doing a lot of work in most guides. Czech law is more specific: § 1 names six public registers of legal and natural persons, and the commercial register is one of six rather than the whole set.

• the spolkový rejstřík — the associations register
• the nadační rejstřík — the foundations register
• the rejstřík ústavů — the institutes register
• the rejstřík společenství vlastníků jednotek — the register of unit-owners' associations
• the obchodní rejstřík — the commercial register
• the rejstřík obecně prospěšných společností — the register of public benefit companies

That list is worth reading as a routing table. A reader looking for a Czech foundation, an institute, or an owners' association is not looking in the obchodní rejstřík, and an absence there is not evidence the body does not exist. The statute says where each one lives, which is more than most jurisdictions put in law.

What a Czech company register entry contains

A self-contained summary. The Czech Republic's public registers of legal and natural persons are the veřejné rejstříky, held by the Ministry of Justice at or.justice.cz together with the sbírka listin, the collection of deeds. Per § 1 of Act No. 106/1999 Coll. the public registers are six: the associations register (spolkový rejstřík), the foundations register (nadační rejstřík), the institutes register (rejstřík ústavů), the register of unit-owners' associations (rejstřík společenství vlastníků jednotek), the commercial register (obchodní rejstřík) and the register of public benefit companies (rejstřík obecně prospěšných společností). Per § 75 of that Act the public registers are maintained by the krajské soudy, the regional courts, for entities seated in the district of the relevant regional court. Section 3 of the same Act defines open data as information published in a manner allowing remote access, in an open and machine-readable format, whose manner and purpose of subsequent use is not restricted, and which is recorded in the national open data catalogue. ARES, at ares.gov.cz, is run by the Ministerstvo financí and aggregates information from source registers; it holds no data of its own, and the authoritative register entry and the collection of deeds are at or.justice.cz. The Ministry of Justice operates an open-data service for the public register and collection of deeds at dataor.justice.cz, with published terms of use, a user manual and a contact point at dataor@msp.justice.cz. A new portal for the commercial register and the register of trust funds is running in verification operation and is being adjusted. This summary does not describe the fields of a register entry, because none was established from the registers' own pages on the date shown.

Courts, not an agency

One structural fact shapes everything above, and it is stated in the Act:

"Veřejné rejstříky vedou krajské soudy podle § 75 tohoto zákona pro ty subjekty, které mají své sídlo v obvodu příslušného krajského soudu."

The public registers are maintained by the regional courts, under § 75 of the Act, for those entities which have their seat in the district of the relevant regional court.

So the Czech register is not kept by a registry agency or a ministry directorate. It is kept by courts, and which court depends on where the entity is seated. That is a different institutional model from a central registrar, and it has a practical edge: the body that records a Czech company is a judicial one, and the register is organised by judicial district rather than by a single national office.

This page does not compare that model to any other country's, because no other guide in this series has yet covered a court-held register and a comparison written from general knowledge would be exactly the unsourced material this series leaves out.

Where a Czech Republic lookup stops

Beyond the search interfaces, the Ministry of Justice runs an open-data service for the public register and the collection of deeds at dataor.justice.cz, with published terms of use, a user manual, and a contact point at dataor@msp.justice.cz. A reader who needs the register as data rather than as pages starts there, and reads the terms of use before building anything on it.

This page stops short of describing what a register entry actually contains. No field of a Czech register entry was established from the registers' own pages on the date shown, so none is listed here — a field list assembled from vendor guides would make the page more useful to read and worth less to rely on. CZECH_REPUBLIC_REPORT.md names what would close that gap.

Where the question is a population rather than a company, a firmographic directory covers the same registered entities with classification, size and contact data attached and queryable as a set; the Europe company directory breaks the European file down by market.

Data quality pitfalls to avoid in the Czech Republic

Treating an ARES record as the filing. ARES aggregates from source registers and owns no data; the authoritative entry and the sbírka listin are at or.justice.cz.

Searching only the obchodní rejstřík. The Act names six public registers, and foundations, institutes, associations and unit-owners' associations are in registers of their own.

Carrying another country's open-data assumptions across the border. Czech law defines open data as data whose manner and purpose of subsequent use is not restricted; other member states attach conditions to theirs, and the difference is written into each one's own law.

Expecting a single national registrar. The public registers are maintained by the regional courts, for entities seated in the relevant court's district.

Building against an interface that is being adjusted. A new portal for the commercial register and the register of trust funds is in verification operation.

Taking register data as data without reading the terms. The Ministry of Justice publishes terms of use and a user manual alongside the dataor.justice.cz service.

A repeatable Czech Republic company lookup workflow

1. Use ARES to find the entity, and or.justice.cz to rely on what you found.
2. Go to the sbírka listin when you need the filed document rather than a summary.
3. Check which of the six registers the entity type belongs in before concluding it is not registered.
4. Note the regional court whose district the entity is seated in, alongside the record.
5. Read the dataor.justice.cz terms of use and user manual before building against the open data.
6. Expect the commercial register portal to change: a new one is in verification operation and is being adjusted.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the authoritative Czech company register?

At or.justice.cz, held by the Ministry of Justice, together with the sbírka listin. ARES at ares.gov.cz aggregates from source registers and owns no data of its own.

How does Czech law define open data?

Section 3 of Act No. 106/1999 Coll. defines it as information published in a manner allowing remote access, in an open and machine-readable format, whose manner and purpose of subsequent use is not restricted, and which is recorded in the national open data catalogue.

Who maintains the Czech public registers?

The krajské soudy — the regional courts — under § 75 of the Act, each for entities seated in that court's district.

How many public registers are there?

Six, named in § 1: the associations register, the foundations register, the institutes register, the register of unit-owners' associations, the commercial register and the register of public benefit companies.

Is a Czech foundation in the commercial register?

No. The nadační rejstřík is a separate register, and the Act names it separately from the obchodní rejstřík.

Is there an open-data service for the register?

Yes. The Ministry of Justice operates one for the public register and collection of deeds at dataor.justice.cz, with terms of use, a user manual and a contact point.

Is the commercial register portal changing?

A new portal for the commercial register and the register of trust funds is running in verification operation and is being adjusted. What changes and when is not something this page states, because the source does not.

Source Register

Both Czech passages above are quoted in Czech with an English gloss beside them rather than in place of them, and each carries its diacritics as the source writes them. No amount appears anywhere in this page's prose. The page describes no field of a register entry, because none was sourced — CZECH_REPUBLIC_REPORT.md enumerates that gap along with the other omissions and what would confirm each.

The readings that are InfobelPRO's rather than the ministries': that the middle clause of the § 3 definition is the unusual part, because it speaks to the purpose of later use rather than only to format and access; that the six-register list is best used as a routing table, so that an absence from the obchodní rejstřík is not evidence a body does not exist; and that ARES should be used to find while or.justice.cz is used to rely. Those are ours. Nothing here is a criticism of ARES, which is an aggregator doing an aggregator's job, or of the Belgian regime, which is a different national answer rather than a worse one.