Assessment and recommendations

Description

Latvia’s “Commercial Law” serves as the basis for creating, managing and closing businesses. The business stakeholders consulted for this report expressed general satisfaction with the provisions of this law and its implementation. The stakeholders are also generally satisfied with the services provided by the state bodies involved, namely the Enterprise Registry, the State Land Service and Land Registry offices and the Patent Office. Nonetheless, two issues for improvement were identified. First, courts and public services were at times seen to take an unnecessarily strict approach in applying the Commercial Law. For example, when a matter is not regulated in the Commercial Law, state institutions often assume that it is prohibited rather than providing the parties with the freedom to contract. Second, entrepreneurs identified the need to adapt the Commercial Law to modern forms of business and finance, such as start-ups and crowdfunding.  Read more...