A foreign company that is being entered in the Czech Commercial Register obtains trade authorisation at the earliest on the date of entry, not on the date of notification. The trade licensing office first confirms that the conditions are met by issuing an extract from the Trade Register, and only then does registration of the branch follow. If the entry does not occur within 90 days of the notification, the office decides that the company has not met the conditions for authorisation to arise.
A Slovak s. r. o. has rented a warehouse in Brno, found a manager and wants to start invoicing Czech customers as soon as possible. With a registered branch, two authorities with their own rules meet: the Czech trade licensing office, which grants authorisation for the activity, and the registry court, which enters the branch in the Commercial Register. For a foreign company that is being entered in the Czech Commercial Register, the rule you know from both Slovakia and Czechia for companies already registered, that trade authorisation arises on the date of notification, does not apply; what matters is the entry in the Commercial Register.
First the trade licensing office, then the register
A legal entity already entered in the Commercial Register obtains authorisation in Czechia for a notifiable trade on the date of notification, and for a concession-based trade when the decision granting the concession becomes final (Section 10(1) of the Czech Trade Licensing Act). A foreign legal entity, however, is not entered in the Czech register. The trade licensing office therefore first merely confirms that it meets the conditions for carrying on the trade, by issuing an extract from the Trade Register (Section 10(4)). Its authorisation arises at the earliest on the date of entry in the Commercial Register, where it is to be entered there (Section 10(5)).
The order is thus the reverse of what a company would intuitively expect. Notification of the trade is the first step, and the extract from the Trade Register usually serves as supporting documentation for the registration application, because for a registered branch the register also records its line of activity or business (Section 50(b) of Act No. 304/2013 Sb.). Only on entry of the branch does the authorisation arise and the company may begin to trade in Czechia under the trade licence.
The 90-day period
The company does not have unlimited time for the entry. If a foreign person is not entered in the Commercial Register within 90 days of the date on which the trade was notified or the application for a concession was filed, the trade licensing office decides that the conditions for trade authorisation to arise have not been met (Section 10(5)). The period runs from the notification, not from the issue of the extract, and covers the entire registration proceedings. The registration application should therefore be ready at the same time as the notification, including the documents on the Slovak company and on the manager, so that nothing has to be supplied only after the extract has been issued.
With documents from Slovakia, a Czech exception helps: the Act otherwise requires documents translated by a sworn translator and certified, but for a legal entity with its registered office in a European Union Member State this is not required where there are no doubts as to the correctness of the translation or the authenticity of the signature or seal (Section 5(3) and (4)). That relief applies to the trade licensing office; which documents the registry court requires, and in what form, we assess separately.
From the entry, the manager acts too
The entry is decisive for the branch manager as well. The Czech Civil Code expressly links the manager to the registered branch:
Where an establishment is entered in the Commercial Register, it is a registered branch; the same applies to another organisational unit where another legal regulation provides that it is to be entered in the Commercial Register. The manager of a registered branch is authorised to represent the entrepreneur in all matters concerning the registered branch from the date on which they were entered in the Commercial Register as the manager of the registered branch.
— Section 503(2) of Act No. 89/2012 Sb. (unofficial English translation)
The register records the details required by law about the manager and the address of their residence (Section 50(f) of Act No. 304/2013 Sb.). Until the entry is made, the manager acts for the company only under a power of attorney. Whether the manager must also be the responsible representative for a craft or regulated trade is examined in the branch manager as responsible representative.
What to plan for
Trade authorisation cannot be transferred to another person (Section 10(7)). If the registered branch later grows into a Czech s. r. o., the new company will need its own authorisation; the procedure is described in the article on from a registered branch to a Czech s. r. o.. We prepare the trade notifications, the registration application and the timetable for both sets of proceedings as part of our registered branch in Czechia service, so that the first invoice does not wait longer than necessary.
This answer provides general information on the law as at 12 September 2026. It does not constitute legal services or replace an assessment of an individual case. The details of your situation may differ. Book a consultation to discuss them.
