Apply for a travel trade license

If you do not have a commercial establishment or wish to offer goods for sale, services or entertaining activities as a showman or showwoman or as a showman or showwoman, you must apply for a permit (traveling trade license).

You operate a traveling trade and require a permit from the competent authority (traveling trade card) if you commercially without prior appointment outside your commercial establishment or without having such an establishment

• offer goods for sale or seek out or purchase orders or
• offer services or seek orders for services.

This includes in particular activities such as

• visiting homes or stores (door-to-door sales) without prior order,
• offering goods and services on the street or in public places,
• entertaining activities as a showman or in the manner of a showman (typical fairground business).

The prerequisite for the granting of the permit (travel trade license) is the personal reliability of the applicant with regard to the specific travel trade activity envisaged.

For the exercise of licensed trades (including security guards, real estate agents, property developers, construction supervisors, investment advisors, insurance brokers, insurance advisors) in the travel trade, additional requirements are imposed in accordance with the requirements for established trades.

Any expansion of the commercial activity or the goods and services offered is subject to renewed approval and will be added to the existing traveling trade license upon application. The traveling trade license is valid nationwide.

If you employ staff, they will require a duplicate or certified copy of your traveling trade card. The traveling trade card or a copy or duplicate must be carried during the traveling trade activity.

Travel tradecard-exempt activity
You do not need a traveling trade card for some traveling trade activities. This applies, for example, to

• the sale of foodstuffs or other everyday goods if these are sold by non-fixed, i.e. mobile, sales outlets at regular short intervals at the same location,
• the offering for sale of printed works in street sales (mobile newspaper sales)

However, these activities are subject to the other provisions for the itinerant trade (e.g. the obligation to notify), unless otherwise specified there.

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• Online procedure possible: yes (if offered)
• Written form required: no
• Personal appearance required: no

• Commercial reliability

(Reliability is checked on the basis of various documents. As a rule, you do not have the required reliability if you have been convicted of a crime or of theft, embezzlement, extortion, fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, forgery, receiving stolen goods, usury or an offense against the Unfair Competition Act in the five years prior to submitting the application).

• § Section 55 of the Trade, Commerce and Industry Regulation Act (GewO)
• §§ Sections 55a, 55b of the Trade Regulation Act (GewO)

• Appeal (depending on national law, the appeal may be excluded)
• Administrative court action

Once you have submitted the application for a traveling trade license to your competent authority and all documents are complete, the competent authority will check whether you meet the relevant requirements.

If all documents are complete, you will receive the requested travel trade license.

If you have a traveling trade card, you are obliged to carry it with you while carrying out your trade. If you use a sales outlet or other facility (e.g. a sales trolley), you must display your surname and first name or company name visibly on the outside.

Self-employed entertainment activities as a showman or showwoman or as a showman or showwoman belong to the traveling trade and require a traveling trade card on the part of the person running the business. If the person running the business does not work at the location of the performance themselves, they must provide the employees present there with a duplicate of the traveling trade license.

Anyone who is self-employed as a showman or showwoman or who carries out an insurable activity in the traveling trade must take out liability insurance for himself and the persons employed in his business to cover personal injury and property damage caused by his or their activity and maintain it for the duration of his activity.

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