Travel Industry; Applying for a License

Unlike commercial activities conducted from a fixed location, engaging in itinerant trade generally requires not a business registration but an official permit (itinerant trade license).

A person engages in itinerant trade if they sell or purchase goods, offer services, and/or solicit orders for services outside of a commercial establishment or without such an establishment and without a prior appointment. This includes, in particular, visiting homes or businesses (door-to-door sales) without a prior order or offering goods and services on the street or in public squares, e.g., from mobile sales stands.

A traveling trade is also carried out by anyone who engages in entertainment activities as a showman or in a showman-like manner (activities typical of folk festivals).

If the business owner is a partnership without its own legal personality, a traveling trade license must be issued for each partner engaged in the traveling trade.

Certain activities are exempt from the itinerant trade license requirement, such as the sale of goods in connection with trade fairs, exhibitions, public festivals, or on special occasions with permission from the competent municipality; or the sale of self-produced agricultural and forestry products, as well as products from vegetable, fruit, and horticultural cultivation, poultry farming, beekeeping, hunting, and fishing.

However, some of the trades exempt from the itinerant trade license are subject to a notification requirement with the competent municipality, provided the trade is not already subject to a business registration requirement. These include:

• the offering of goods for sale, soliciting orders, offering services, or soliciting orders for services within the municipality of one’s residence or business establishment, provided that the municipality has no more than 10,000 residents,
• the sale of food or other everyday goods from a non-fixed sales location or another facility at regular, short intervals at the same location,
• the sale of printed matter on public roads, streets, squares, or other public places.

Certain activities are prohibited in the itinerant trade, such as, in principle, the sale of poisons and goods containing poisons, broken ribbons, electromedical devices, securities, or the offering for sale and purchase of precious metals.

Traveling vendors must obtain liability insurance for certain activities (Traveling Vendors’ Liability Ordinance).

The holder of a traveling trade license is required to carry it while conducting business, to present it to the competent authorities or officials upon request, and to suspend their activities upon request until the traveling trade license is produced. Upon request, they must present the goods they are carrying.

If the holder of the itinerant trade license does not personally carry out the activity, they are required to provide employees working in the business with a duplicate or a certified copy of the itinerant trade license if they are to come into direct contact with customers; this also applies if the employees are working at a location other than that of the holder.

Contact:

+(49) 09131 / 86 - 2290

+(49) 09131 / 86 - 1876

A prerequisite for obtaining a license is the operator's good character.

You must apply for the permit from the district administrative authority in the district where you have your habitual residence.

You must apply for permission before beginning the activity.

Duration of the procedure: approximately 2–4 weeks

• Identification card or passport (copy)
• Certificate of Good Conduct for Government Agencies
  (Apply at your municipality of residence)
• Extract from the Central Business Register
• For EU citizens: a certified copy of a certificate of good conduct from the country of origin, along with a certified German translation;
  if applicable, substitution with an affidavit or comparable action
• For non-EU citizens: Proof of good character
  

  An official certificate of good conduct or character, or an extract from the criminal record of the applicant’s home country, or an equivalent document, and/or a certificate of good conduct for government agencies and a report from the Central Trade Register

• For registered companies: an extract from the commercial register or comparable registration documents from abroad (with a German translation)
• For non-EU citizens: a residence permit that allows self-employment
• If an authorized representative is present: a written power of attorney and identification documents for both the principal and the authorized representative
• If necessary, approval from the family court for minors

• Travel Industry License: 30 to 500 EUR in accordance with the Schedule of Fees under the Cost Act (Rate No. 5.III.5/23.1.1)
• Certificate of Good Conduct and extract from the Central Trade Register: 13 EUR each