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GISA queries

The Austrian Business Licence Information System (Gewerbeinformationssystem Austria – GISA) contains the most important business-related data of all commercial operations established in Austria. In GISA, interested users may obtain information by rapid and simple means, in particular the name and/or business name, location and wording of the business licence of a commercial entity. Currently GISA is the only authentic source of information for data of individual businesses, which are not included in the companies register.

GISA queries are free of charge and require no registration. Both the search queries and the excerpts are available in German and English.
 

The excerpts in both German and English bear the official electronic signature of the agency. GISA excerpts can thus be used as authentic public documents abroad in regions with official languages other than German provided your international contact accepts official documents in English. If you need excerpts from GISA in English, please use the English search option. Furthermore, you may switch between the English and German versions at any time during your search query.

Note regarding English excerpts: the English version does not include a translation of the wording of the trade or business concerned as such a translation might lead, depending on the region where the excerpt is to be used, to (inadvertent) changes in what the scope of authorisation actually covers. For the time being it is not possible to provide a globally uniform and comprehensible translation of trade or business designations that would reliably avoid any loss or change of meaning in what this trade or business actually covers.

Which business information can be provided?

  • Public queries:

As the protection of data is of special concern to the Federal Ministry for Labour and Economy and the cooperation community of federal/state/municipal agencies, the excerpts and the digital business licence made available via public queries include only data that are deemed to be public information within the meaning of § 365e (1) of the 1994 Trade Act, and which are to be provided to anyone requesting such information.

  • Business information which may only be provided in case of plausible legitimate interest:

Excerpts that include information which may only be provided if substantiated by legitimate interest (for instance: place of birth, nationality, place of residence, social security number) neither can be provided via public queries, nor can the agency provide this information over the phone or any other non-authenticated communication channel. If you need excerpts containing this kind of information, you must turn to the competent district authority (Bezirkshauptmannschaft or Magistrat).

Digital business licence

The digital business licence was introduced as of 1st of May 2018 under § 38 of the Austrian Trade Act (Gewerbeordnung 1994 – GewO 1994). This licence includes all and any valid authorisations a specific person may hold for conducting a trade or business including key information on each of the authorisations which are covered by the digital business licence. If you need more detailed information on a specific business authorisation you may select the comprehensive excerpt of the related business authorisation directly via the digital business licence without having to start any separate search. To continue, you only need an ongoing internet connection.

The digital business licence, too, is available in German or English as an officially signed document and can be obtained via the standard GISA search function. However, please bear in mind that for now this function, too, cannot provide the designation of the trade or business in English.

Contact

Division for Trade Law: gewerbe@bmaw.gv.at