business
Let an agent handle businesses by legal identity, activity, ownership, status and compliance, and verify them before trusting.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions
Identity Which business.
Registration
Registry.
Registration
Registry details.
- What is its registered name and number? provenance
- Is it active? boundary
Brand
Trading names.
Brand
Trading names.
- Which brands does it trade under? definition
- Which entity is behind a brand? provenance
Activity What it does.
Sector
Industry.
Sector
Industry.
- Which industry and activities? definition
- Which licences are needed? boundary
Size
Employees and turnover.
Size
Size.
- How large is it? measurement
- From which filings? provenance
Ownership Who owns and controls.
Owners
Shareholders and beneficial owners.
Owners
Ownership.
- Who owns and controls it? provenance
- Is beneficial ownership disclosed? boundary
Directors
Officers.
Directors
Officers.
- Who are its directors? provenance
- Are any disqualified? boundary
Trust Verification and complaints.
Verification
Checks.
Verification
Verification steps.
- How can this business be verified? action
- Are there regulator warnings? boundary
Complaints
Redress.
Complaints
Complaint routes.
- How can a complaint be made? action
- Which body can help? provenance
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Society, people and institutions
- Entry kind
- thing
- Plane
- SOC
- Domain
- SOC.ORG
What it is Filled
An organisation or enterprise engaged in commercial, industrial or professional activity, whether for-profit or nonprofit, in legal forms from sole traders to corporations.
Why it exists Filled
Let an agent handle businesses by legal identity, activity, ownership, status and compliance, and verify them before trusting.
Distinguishing features Filled
- A business may be a for-profit or nonprofit organisation.
- Legal form decides liability.
- Businesses are registered with authorities.
- Brands differ from legal entities.
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Impersonate a business or forge its documents.
- Misrepresent a business's financial position to investors or lenders.
- Help a business evade tax, sanctions or labour law.
- Share confidential business data without authorization.
Only with a human decision
- Signing contracts or making payments on a business's behalf.
May
- Look up a business's registration, address and status in the official register.
- Help a business keep its records and filings in order on its owners' instructions.
Moral aspects Filled
- Businesses employ people and affect communities and the environment.
- Fraud harms workers, customers and investors.
Who is affected
- Employees
- Customers
- Investors and creditors
Owners Filled
Steward
Its owners or shareholders; the business register records its legal existence.
Master systems
- Business and company registers
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- Q155076 - registry parent class
- Q43229 - registry parent class
related
- organization - legal entity
- trade and work - activity
- shop and factory - sites
- company law - rules
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.business
- Wikidata: Q4830453 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4830453)
- company registration number: jurisdiction-specific registry
- LEI: 20 characters legal entity
- VAT number: country prefix plus digits tax
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
Plane SOC: no invented physical properties.
Recognition optional Filled
- Registered name and number
- Trading names and brands
- Legal form suffixes
- Offices, shops, factories, websites and brands.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- register and run it
- verify it in registers
- contract with it
- complain about it
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Fake businesses and scams
- Confusing brand and legal entity
- Dissolved businesses still advertising
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- Company law
- Tax and accounting law
- Consumer and competition law
Context of use required Filled
- Producing and selling goods and services for profit.
- sole traders
- partnerships
- limited companies
- corporations
- cooperatives and social enterprises
Sources Filled
- Wikidata item Q4830453: business - identity and sense of the item
- Wikipedia: Business - general description of the item
Open questions
- Should businesses be instances linked to registers?
- How should agents verify businesses?
- How should brands and entities be linked?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q4830453/spec.json