Itinerant trade: Advertisement for activities exempt from travel business cards

Only a few activities that do not require a travel authorization card must be reported. Before starting an activity that is not subject to a travel authorization card, please check whether you may have to report it to the responsible office.

The following activities are exempt from the obligation to notify the competent authority:

• Whoever offers goods for sale or seeks orders (distributes) or purchases, offers services or seeks orders for services in the municipality of his residence or commercial establishment, provided that the municipality does not have more than 10,000 inhabitants;
• Whoever distributes foodstuffs or other goods for daily use from a non-fixed place of sale or other establishment at regular, shorter intervals at the same place;
• Who offers printed matter for sale in public ways, streets, squares or other public places.

If you are engaged in any of the above activities that do not require a travel trade card, you must notify the competent authority of the commencement of your trade, unless it has already been registered under other standards of the Trade Regulation Act.

You must also make a notification if

• you change the subject matter of the trade or extend it to goods or services that are not customary in your trade, or
• you give up your travel trade activity.

Contact the municipality or city administration where you have your habitual residence or where the future company will have its registered office.

You can also complete the procedure electronically via the "Point of Single Contact".

• Completed application form
• Copy of identity card or comparable identification document / If applicable, residence permit with the note "Erwerbstätigkeit gestattet" if applicant is not from a country of the European Union, the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland.
• For proof of entrepreneurial legal form:
  • If you have your company's registered office in Germany, you will need: in the case of registered companies, an extract from the register (e.g. commercial register, register of cooperatives); in the case of unregistered companies, a copy of the articles of association
  • If you have your company headquarters abroad, you will need documents from the country of domicile proving the legal form.

• Written form required: no
• Online procedure possible: yes
• Personal appearance required: no

Start of a notifiable traveling trade for which a duty of notification does not already exist according to the Trade Regulation Act.

To ensure that you comply with your duty of notification in good time, you must

• complete the relevant application form and send it to the competent authority before commencing your activity

• attach to the application form enclose the required documents

• § Section 14 (1) sentences 2 and 3, (4) to (12) GewO
• § 15 Para. 1 GewO
• Trade Notification Ordinance (GewAnzV)
• § Section 55c Trade Regulation Act (GewO)

• Objection (depending on state law, the objection may be excluded)
• Administrative law action

• You can file a notification of a travel business or a "travel business card-free activity" in person, in writing or electronically.
• Once you have submitted the application and all documents are complete, the responsible office will check whether all requirements for the notification have been met.
• If all documents are complete, you have fulfilled your obligation to notify.
• Only when you have fulfilled the obligation to notify, you may start your activity.

You must immediately report your trade activity with admission. If you do not report, do not report correctly, do not report completely or do not report in time, you will be fined.

In case of written or electronic notification, you will receive the receipt of your notification in a timely mannerprovided that the notification form complete and correctly filled out and the required documents are available.

Is based on the respective administrative fee regulations of the state or on the fee statutes of the bodies responsible under state law.

Information on the business start-up portal of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy on the topic