Partners - Czech Republic

Updated 10/2010

Legal requirements

A specific form of business association may be set up when a company is unable to carry out certain activities due to its size or its financial situation. This may be a cluster, network, alliance, holding, franchise or joint venture.

Act on the Transformation of Trading Companies and Cooperatives
Commercial Code

Types of collaboration

Clusters are sectoral associations of mutually interconnected companies, specialised suppliers and providers of services or companies that work in related fields.

Clusters
Guide to clusters [901 KB]
Green book on cluster initiatives [5 MB]

Franchising is contractually based cooperation between independent business owners. It enables the franchisee to achieve greater growth rates as the parent organisation provides various services including training.

A strategic alliance is an organisational structure which helps maintain a common entrepreneurial activity by means of independent units - strategic partners. At the same time, each of the partners appears from the outside to be an autonomous business unit.

A joint venture involves the establishment of a new entrepreneurial entity, typically with a foreign partner. The founders must agree on common business activities, ownership, organisational structure and control of the entire venture.

A concern is an extensive and internally articulated grouping of businesses and companies, which is made up of independent businesses and companies within the concern that have legal personality while the concern as a whole does not have legal personality. A concern is managed by a parent company that has a controlling interest in the individual businesses and companies.

A holding is a whole grouping of businesses and companies linked together through mutual share ownership, with a holding company at its heart, i.e. a parent company which strategically directs and has a controlling interest in the other companies within the holding.

In the Czech Republic concerns and holdings are legally regulated under Section 66a of the Commercial Code, entitled Business Groupings.

A business network is a grouping of firms that are mutually linked in some way (e.g. specialised suppliers of certain services, firms in the same field,…) and that cooperate within the framework of the network. Such a network of firms brings certain specific advantages that may be used against firms that are outside the network.

New types of European business structure

The oldest multinational legal format is the European Economic Interest Association.

European Economic Interest Association

A European Joint Stock Company is the second form of multinational, regulated under standards of Community law that are directly applicable in the various Member States of the European Union.

European Joint Stock Company

The most recent form of multinational is the European Cooperative Society, also known as the European Cooperative.

European Cooperative Society

Other options for expanding your business are taking over an existing one, merging with another company or opening a branch in another EU country.

Administrative procedures

Registration

Detailed information on registration for the individual types of cooperation is availabe on the following websites.

Franchise agreements
Setting up and creating a public company
Setting up and creating a cooperative
Setting up and creating a limited partnership
Setting up and developing a cluster
Setting up and creating a European Economic Interest Association
Ways of setting up a European Joint Stock Company
Ways of setting up a European Cooperative Society

Resources

The Czech Trade Agency also administers a database of inquiries from abroad.

Inquiries from abroad

There is also an online database of current projects and tenders. The online database of investment opportunities is intended for companies who have decided on investments or acquisitions abroad.

Foreign projects and tenders
Foreign investment opportunities

On the website of the Kompass company it is possible to search databases of businesses and companies from all over the world:

Kompass

The website of the Official Portal for Business and sectors also provides a list of electronic marketplaces, a list of online tenders and requests, and also a list of sectoral and professional organisations.

List of e-marketplaces
List of online tenders and requests
List of sectoral and professional organisations

The website of the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic publishes guidelines on international tax arrangements and agreements preventing double taxation.

Overview of guidelines on the topic of double taxation

The current agreements preventing double taxation are available on the website BusinessInfo.cz - the official portal for business and export.

Agreements on the prevention of double taxation

Check also the legislation on this topic in:

Partners - Czech Republic