Bulgaria to Limit Access to Business Registry 2012
The currently unrestricted public access to the Business (Trade) Registry of Bulgaria's Registry Agency will be limited and most probably paid as of the beginning of 2012.
This is envisaged by amendments to the Trade Registry Law, which the legal parliamentary commission unexpectedly adopted late on Thursday. Curiously the changes were approved even though out of all 26 members of the commission, only six - all members of the ruling party GERB - were present.
There are two types of business databases in Bulgaria - one contains general company data and the second stores contracts, protocols, shareholders' decisions, etc. While the former will remain open to the public, the latter will be restricted, under the adopted amendments.
Information pertaining to business and company cases will be accessible only at the very Registry Agency after producing a request in writing and an ID card. Bulgarians, who want online access to the full information of a company, will be able to do so only after obtaining a digital certificate, issued by the agency, or an e-signature.
It is still unclear how much the certificate will cost. The price for getting an e-signature is BGN 60 for physical persons and BGN 100 for companies.
According to the new amendment, full access will be provided only to the Court, the investigation, personal data operators, lawyers, notaries public, law enforcement officers, legal advisors, and tax agents. Their access would also be monitored and there will be a log of who accessed what information and when. /Source: Sofia News Agency/