Business licence in Luxembourg: the permit to run your activity.

What is a business licence?

The business licence (autorisation d'établissement), often called a trading permit, is the prior administrative authorisation for carrying on a commercial, craft, industrial or certain liberal activities in Luxembourg. It is issued by the General Directorate for SMEs of the Ministry of the Economy.

Without this licence, the activity cannot legally start. We usually handle it in parallel with incorporation, so the company is operational as soon as it is registered.

The four conditions to meet

The licence rests on four cumulative conditions: the manager's professional standing (no serious breaches, no fraudulent bankruptcies), professional qualification where required for the activity (diploma or experience), a fixed and stable establishment in Luxembourg, and an effective manager who genuinely runs the business.

Each activity has its own requirements: some craft trades or liberal professions require a specific diploma, others mere experience. We check the applicable requirement before building the file.

The effective manager and the ban on name-lending

The licence is attached to a person, the effective manager, who must genuinely and permanently run the activity, be present in the business and maintain a real link with it (ownership, contract, effective presence).

Using a prête-nom, someone lending their name and qualification without genuine involvement, is strictly prohibited and exposes the company to withdrawal of the licence. We structure governance so that the designated manager meets these requirements.

How does the application work?

The application is filed with the General Directorate for SMEs of the Ministry of the Economy, online via guichet.public.lu / MyGuichet, together with supporting documents and the fee. The Ministry reviews the file and may request additional information.

We prepare the entire file, file the application and handle the dialogue with the administration through to issuance, in coordination with RCS registration.

Licence and company formation: one single chain

For most of our clients, the business licence is part of a wider journey: choosing the form (SARL, SA, SARL-S), incorporation, licence, RCS registration, RBE entry, VAT registration and accounting set-up.

We orchestrate this chain with a single point of contact, so you obtain an operational, compliant company without scattered procedures.

How much does a business licence cost by activity?

A business licence applied for on its own costs between EUR 650 and EUR 1,250 in fees, excluding VAT and chancery disbursements. The price follows the actual workload at the Directorate General for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: an unrestricted activity is documented with a handful of items, whereas a qualified trade requires a diploma or professional experience to be validated. Each activity below has its own page, with the published price, the documents required and the observed lead time.

Unrestricted access, EUR 650 to EUR 750. No qualification is required: the file rests on professional integrity and a fixed establishment. Platform delivery rider at EUR 650, then at EUR 750 IT consulting, e-commerce and light goods transport up to 3.5 tonnes.

Qualified trades, EUR 1,250. A single flat fee covers every trade falling under the Chamber of Skilled Trades, however demanding the validation: construction, roofer, zinc and sheet metal work, electrician, heating and plumbing, carpenter-joiner, painter-plasterer, tiler and landscaper.

Personal services and regulated trade, EUR 1,250. The same flat fee applies to a cleaning company, a hair salon, a beauty salon, a bakery, a restaurant or HORECA business and a real estate agency, whose access is subject to its own conditions.

If your activity is not listed, it almost always falls under one of the two flat fees. The full grid, with the detail of what drives each file, is on our pricing page.