Business principals must meet specific requirements, and they can qualify as undertakers by registering in relevant registers, rolls or lists, some of which are kept by the Chambers of Commerce.

Those who intend to be involved in the brokerage business (agent middlemen, or so-called business agents), provided that they meet legal requirements, must be entered in the relevant registers, rolls or lists: Register of Agents, Register of Shipbrokers, List Ship of Husbands, Register of Mercantile Agents and Factors, List of Shipping and Forwarding Agents, Roll of Commission Agents, Authorised Representatives and auctioneer, Roll of valuators and public weightmasters.

Entry in said rolls, registers and lists allows qualifying to carry out intermediation activities (Brokerage Business Agency, Mercantile and Commercial Agencies, Forwarding and Shipping Agencies, etc.).

Agents
Those who intend to carry out intermediation activities, even occasionally or intermittently, must register in the Roll of Agents, consisting of three sectionsi:

Real-estate agent section, including all those who carry out activities aiming at doing business in the real estate industry (land, buildings, etc.) and in the corporate sector;
· Commodity agents section, encompassing agents carrying out business activities relating to goods, commodities or livestock;
· section for agents in agencies for remuneration, encompassing those who act on behalf of businesses operating in the real estate or corporate areas;
· Section for agents in various services, including those who carry out business activities in the financial and advertisement industries.

Company directors or sole proprietors carrying out brokerage activities relating to construction, purchase and leasing contracts, contracts of affreightment and contracts for the carriage of goods by sea, are obliged to register in the Register of Shipbrokers.
Only people meeting specific requirements can register. Professional skills are assessed through an exam, to be taken before an ad hoc examination board established by the Chamber of Commerce .

Shipbrokers
Company directors or sole proprietors carrying out brokerage activities relating to construction, purchase and leasing contracts, contracts of affreightment and contracts for the carriage of goods by sea, are obliged to register in the Register of Shipbrokers.
Only people meeting specific requirements can register. Professional skills are assessed through an exam, to be taken before an ad hoc examination board established by the Chamber of Commerce.

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Ships Husbands
Ship’s husbands are people carrying out activities on behalf of the shipping company, including providing support to the captain vis-à-vis local authorities or third parties, receipt or delivery goods, passenger boarding and disembarking, sea-fright agreements, entering into contracts for the carriage of goods and passengers and issuance of the relating documents. There are also inter-provincial lists of ship’s husbands, which are kept by the Chambers of Commerce of the provinces where Sea Offices (Direzioni Marittime) are located. In order to register in such lists, applicants must take an oral exam before the Chamber of Commerce examination board, aiming at assessing each candidate’s familiarity with maritime trade ordinary documents, his/her knowledge of the relevant legal provisions and proficiency in English.

Mercantile Agents and Factors
Mercantile Agents are people who are mandated, by one or more enterprises (sole and multiform agents respectively) to carry out activities aiming at entering into agreements, in one or more areas (markets). In order to carry on such activity, one needs to register in the Register of Mercantile Agents and Factors, Kept by the Chamber of Commerce. The following requirements are to be met in order to be allowed registering: attendance of vocational training course, or commercial secondary school certificate, or university degree in business or law. Exceptions are people with al least two-year working experience (in the last five years) as travelling-salesmen or salesmen in a company’s employ.

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Shipping and Forwarding Agents
The principals of businesses carrying out shipping and forwarding activities (by sea, air, road and rail) on a regular basis are included in such inter-provincial Lists, which are kept by some Chambers of Commerce.
Registration applications are accepted after verifying the applicants’ financial standing and technical skills. Financial standing depends on real property, on the existence of a security or money term deposit, and the issuance of the relevant attestations by credit institutions, while their professional skills are to be attested by certificates proving that applicants have received their training, for at least two years, in already registered shipping and forwarding agencies.

Commission agents, authorised representatives and auctioneers
Commissioners, that is, people purchasing or selling goods in their own name, but on behalf of their customers, operating in fruit and vegetable, fish and wholesale meat markets, have to apply to the territorially competent Chamber of Commerce for registration in the Register of Commissioners, authorised representatives and auctioneers, and so do authorised representatives and auctioneers operating in the aforesaid markets. Registration is contingent on their meeting specific requirements (being of age, residing in the province of the territorially competent Chamber of Commerce, no sentences served or to be served).

Valuators and Public Weightmasters
Registration in the Register of valuators and public weightmasters is required to carry out public valuation and weighing activities in ports, wholesale trading centres or other facilities. Only applications filed by people meeting specific moral and professional requirements are accepted.

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