The Belgian Official Gazette: how to search it, and what it tells a sales team
Tipps
The short answer
The Belgian Official Gazette publishes what changes at a Belgian company, and anyone can search it free by company number, name, postcode and publication date. The company register tells you who exists. The Gazette tells you what happened: incorporations, director appointments and resignations, capital changes, registered-office moves, changes to the articles of association, restructurings and dissolutions.
For a sales team that is the difference between an address list and a reason to call this week. Checked on 11 September 2026.
What the Annexes to the Gazette are
The Belgian Official Gazette, the Belgisch Staatsblad or Moniteur belge, is the Belgian state's official journal. One part of it matters for company research: the Annexes, where the deeds and extracts of legal persons are published. Until a deed is published there, it generally cannot be relied on against third parties. That publication duty is exactly why the source is so complete. Companies do not file because they want to; they file because they must.
The search service for legal persons is at ejustice.just.fgov.be and is free.
And what is RPR?
RPR stands for rechtspersonenregister, the register of legal persons. On Belgian invoices and letterhead it normally appears with the competent enterprise court after it, for example "RPR Gent". It points to the same entity as the company number; it is an indication of where the legal person is registered, not a separate number.
How to search
The legal-persons form gives five ways in, plus a filter on legal entity type. The form itself is in Dutch and French, so the Dutch labels are given below.
Field | When to use it |
Company number | You know the company and want its full publication history |
Name | You know the name but not the number |
Postcode and address | You want to see what was published in a municipality or region |
Publication date | You want to bound a period, such as last month |
Legal form | You want companies only, or non-profits only |
Postcode plus date range plus category is the query that pays for prospecting, and almost nobody runs it.
The categories, and what each one means commercially
Category | What happened | Why it is an opening |
Oprichting (incorporation) | A new legal person | Everything is still to be chosen: bank, accountant, software, insurance |
Ontslagen - benoemingen (resignations and appointments) | A director or manager arrives or leaves | New decision-makers review inherited contracts |
Kapitaal - aandelen (capital and shares) | Capital increase or a change in shareholding | Money came in, or there is a new owner |
Benaming maatschappelijke zetel (name and registered office) | Renaming or a move of the registered office | A move touches telecoms, fit-out, logistics, insurance |
Adressen anders dan maatschappelijke zetel | A new site or branch | Expansion, usually with staff and equipment behind it |
Doel (corporate object) | The object is widened or changed | The company is starting something new |
Wijziging rechtsvorm (change of legal form) | For example sole trader to company | Professionalisation, usually with new suppliers |
Herstructurering (restructuring) | Merger, demerger, transfer | Two systems have to become one |
Statuten (articles of association) | Amendment to the articles | Structural change, often alongside one of the above |
Algemene vergadering (general meeting) | Decisions and dates of the general meeting | Weak signal, useful as context |
Boekjaar (financial year) | A change to the financial year-end | Weak signal |
Jaarrekeningen (annual accounts) | Filing | |
Einde (termination) | Cessation and dissolution | Not a prospect, but a reason to clean the CRM |
Ambtshalve doorhaling (striking off) | The company register, the KBO, strikes the registration | Exclude, do not call |
Diversen (miscellaneous) | Whatever fits nowhere else | Read by hand |
The first four are the useful ones. An incorporation, a new director, a capital increase and a move are all events where decisions get made within weeks and then last for years.
Looking up the articles of association of a company or non-profit
This is the most common practical question about the Gazette. The articles of association of a Belgian company or non-profit are published in the Annexes on incorporation, and so is every later amendment. Search on the company number or the name and filter on the statuten category. You get the published deeds as image PDFs, one per deed.
Note the difference with the annual accounts: articles of association are in the Gazette, while annual accounts are filed with the National Bank's Central Balance Sheet Office and consulted there.
What you will not find
The Gazette is a register of legal acts, not a news service and not a contact database. There is no turnover, no headcount, no email address and no commercial decision-maker. There is also no explanation: the capital increase is recorded, the reason for it is not.
The format is awkward too. Publications are image PDFs, one per deed, with no structured fields. Looking up one company works well. Following a region across four categories every week is manual work nobody sustains.
From publication to signal
That last point is the problem Bizzy exists to solve. Bizzy turns company data from 33 European countries into fields you can filter on, with signals layered on top such as hiring, funding rounds, leadership changes and website visits. What you can look up yourself stays free; the cost is the time to do it every week.
How the signals fit a working week is in the prospecting guide for Belgium. Which channel you may then use is set out country by country in is B2B cold outreach legal in Europe?. What the company register itself publishes is in the Belgian company register guide.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Belgian Official Gazette free to search?
Yes. The legal-persons search on ejustice.just.fgov.be is free and needs no account.
How do I find all publications for one company?
Search on the company number. You get that legal person's full publication history, from the deed of incorporation to the most recent amendment.
What is the difference between the company register and the Gazette?
The register records who exists, in what form, and the current state of affairs. The Gazette publishes the deeds by which that state came about or changed. The register is the photograph; the Gazette is the film.
Can I see which companies were incorporated in a region this month?
Yes. Combine the postcode, a date range and the incorporation category. It is the simplest useful prospecting query in the Gazette.
Are annual accounts published there?
The filing is recorded, but the accounts themselves are consulted at the National Bank's Central Balance Sheet Office. How to read them is in how to read Belgian annual accounts.
Are bankruptcies published?
Bankruptcies and judicial reorganisations are published in the Belgian Official Gazette. The legal-persons search is not the route to them; search on the company number and read the publications themselves.
Weiterlesen: ist dieses Unternehmen finanziell gesund? Eigenkapitalquote, Liquidität und Rentabilität aus dem Jahresabschluss.
