Law n. 580/93 provided for the establishment of the Business Register (Registro delle Imprese), consisting of the Register of Companies (Registro delle Società), kept in Court Commercial Registries, and the Register of Business Names (Registro delle Ditte), kept by the Chambers of Commerce. There is one Business Register in each Province, guaranteeing legal publicity of businesses and all related deeds. It consists of an ordinary and a special unit, and Legislative Decree n. 96/2001 provided for the third one, dealing with Law Firms.

Registration of sole proprietorships must take place within thirty days of establishment, while companies are to be registered in compliance with the provisions of the Civil Code. Moreover, any change occurring during the business life, until shutdown, must be recorded in the Register.

A Repository of economic and administrative information (REA - Repertorio delle notizie economiche ed amministrative) complements the Business Register. It includes economic, statistical and administrative data, only pertaining to some actors.
On July 1st 2003, the e-mailing (through the Internet) of company papers became mandatory, except for sole proprietors and persons registered in the REA only.
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In order to send electronic files to the Business Register, it is necessary to be provided with a web-based system allowing safe e-mailing (Telemaco), a software for the filling in of applications (Fedra), and a software allowing signing and checking one or more signatures in any file (Dike).