The largest open database of companies in the world
Great news: last week, the Council of Europe approved the "Directive on open data and the re-use of public sector information" (press release). This was the last opportunity for the directive to be rejected or changed, and it will go into force 20 days after the directive is published in the EU Official Journal (probably … Continue reading It’s official: EU Company Registers to go open data (subject to…)
Earlier this week, the UK Parliament's Joint Committee on the Draft Registration of Overseas Entities Bill published its recommendations on the bill, and we're pleased to say they've explicitly accepted a lot of our recommendations (as well as ones we made in common with anti-corruption NGOs such as Global Witness).
For the past 50 years, companies, regulators, investigators and journalists have mostly used ‘Black Box’ data - data that is opaque, not well defined, uses proprietary identifiers, and has poor data quality feedback loops. But continued reliance on this data could put a firm out of business within five years, according to a new report by OpenCorporates.
This month marks three years since the launch of the Panama Papers – a groundbreaking collaboration between hundreds of media organisations coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. On a Sunday evening in early April in 2016, hundreds of media outlets began to publish stories revealing how complex offshore structures are used to hide money, … Continue reading 3 years after the Panama Papers, European Parliament votes to open up company data
Yesterday and today, almost two years since we filed suit against the Quebec company register, OpenCorporates has been appearing in the Montreal Superior Court – to ask the court to rule that we may continue to make the Quebec company register data available to all. This is an important milestone for OpenCorporates, as it's the … Continue reading Report from the open data frontline: OpenCorporates vs Quebec Registraire des Entreprises
Interested in German company data? You need to come to the Open Data Day this Saturday, March 2, in Berlin...
In Germany, the incorporation of companies (and subsequent changes) is handled not by a central register, but by district courts (‘Amtsgerichts’) – in fact by around 150 such courts (out of a total 600). Unfortunately the identifiers each court issues are neither unique to that court, nor to Germany...
