The Trading Standards team would like to urge small businesses to act with caution if they receive a letter from the “England Commercial Register”.

Don't fall for them

Download the letter (PDF 275.2KB) which is part of a mail-shot which has been sent by a business in Madrid and is headed “England Commercial Register - publication of companies”.

The letter implies that you may have previously agreed to an online directory listing for your business and advises that “in order to avoid the removal of your incomplete details” you should revise and amend your business’ information using an enclosed form – which is partially completed with the addressee’s details (the example below has been redacted).

By signing and returning the form, confirming your business’ details, you are agreeing for your information to be listed and in doing so, will incur a fee of 993Euros per year, over a period of three years, which will result in a bill of nearly 3000 Euros.

Our advice to small businesses would be, should you receive this letter or similar, please ignore it and do not respond to the sender in anyway. The letter may appear to be official, but it is not. Businesses are under no obligation to provide the sender with any of the details requested.

Please see the example above and bring to the attention of your colleagues.