How do I know a busines is legal or not

Jul 17, 2011 · Isabel · 4 replies · 4977 views

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Hello,
In the area I live there are a lot of ?businesses?doing all kind of things. I only want to do business with legal companies but how can I find out if a company is registered or not? I tried to go to the Spanish Chamber of Comerce but that was a bit complicated for me. maybe anyone knows an easy way to find out which businesses are legal and which are not. And I know I can ask the company for their papers but I don?t want to do that.
Many thanks, Isabel

Jul 20, 2011 · jurdyr

Isabel town hall should know as there one that hand out paper work , as in you loacl police station

if you know company do a google on them that help aswell

Jurdy

any more help please pm me here

Jul 29, 2011 · Gretina

I?d presume all legal businesses must be registered with their local Registro Mercantil which they say it?s a public database? But i don?t think they have an online search function so you?ll probably have to ask in person.

Aug 10, 2011 · Lingerie Spain

The only real way is to ask for their CIF number (company registration number) and check that. If you have a lawyer they should be able to check it for you. This site actually has some good info: http://www.spainexpat.com/spain/information/id_numbers_in_spain/

If the company you want to check does any form of buying from outside Spain, there's a good chance they have an EU VAT registration. You can check that here: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/ (the number is ES followed by their CIF number).

You'll need their CIF because the legal name of the company may be different from the trading name.