Opening a Representative Office
Representative Office in the Republic of Croatia may be established by a foreign person performing an economic activity and by national or international economic organizations. A representative office can be set up for market research and for the representation of the founder. A representative office is not a legal entity and is considered to be part of the founder. It may not engage in activities of the founder or contract jobs for the founder, but performs tasks on behalf of the founder. Exceptionally, representative offices of foreign airlines may sell air tickets in accordance with the international agreements signed by the Republic of Croatia and international conventions. A representative office performsits activities under the founder’s company with an indication that it is a representative office.
A representative office is registered in the Foreign Party Representative Registry in the Republic of Croatia kept by the Ministry of Economy. A representative office may start its activities only after registration.
After the Croatian accession to the EU, companies incorporated in other EU Member States, with representative offices in Croatia and whose offices have already been registered in the Foreign Party Representative Register of the Ministry of Economy, and who intend to continue to operate in Croatian territory in a way that the office employs workers and has dedicated business premises, must change the legal form of their representative offices. This change will mean that the representative office will become a branch office or a domestically registered company or crafts’ business. Likewise, after the Croatian accession to the EU, economic entities that come from other EU Member States will no longer have the possibility to open representative offices in the Republic of Croatia, but only register a branch office to open a domestic company or crafts’ business.