A young South Tyrolean studied at the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences. Five years later, he was blindsided when the Social Insurance for the Self-Employed (SVS) contacted him with a garnishment of 1,600 euros for social insurance contributions: someone had registered a business for crochet, embroidery and knitwear under his name in the student hall of residence in November 2020.
All that is required is a name, date of birth, address and email address. Security precautions, e.g. an electronic signature or signature, are not required. As the St. Pölten magistrate did not have any reasons for excluding the business, the business registration was approved.
The man felt downright mocked when he was told that access to the business registration was supposed to be low-threshold and therefore no more data was required for a business registration. The magistrate also did not believe him that someone else should have registered the business for him. However, he could not have registered himself: He is blind and the relevant form from St. Pölten Magistrate's Office was not barrier-free; he would also not have been able to produce the knitwear at all. He only found out about the trade registered under his name through the execution of the SVS.
As Mr B. had not exercised the trade for three years and was more than three years in arrears with the payment of the Chamber of Commerce levy, his trade licence finally ended at the beginning of 2025. Shortly before the recording of the programme, the SVS informed the editors of "Bürgeranwalt" that the executed social insurance contributions would be refunded. However, the St. Pölten magistrate is still of the opinion that the trade was duly registered and will therefore not be cancelled.
Ombudsman Christoph Luisser commented on this in the programme: "The only thing that was crocheted here was Mr B. - namely by the magistrate: If no more than the few pieces of data are needed for a business registration, there is no protection against misuse. The fact that the St. Pölten magistrate also wanted Mr B. to prove that he had not registered the business is unlawful. Such a thing is not provided for in the trade regulations. And it is heartless to boot. Obviously, the mayor does not have his authorities under control. The file should have been presented to him at the latest after the Ombudsman's Office intervened and he should have realised that this was obviously a bogus registration." The requirements for registering a business should be improved somewhat, for example by requiring proof of identity when registering in future.
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