🇫🇮How to verify a supplier in Finland
To verify a supplier in Finland, look the company up for free in the official YTJ / PRH Business Information System (Patent and Registration Office + Tax Administration) and confirm it is registered and currently active. The registry returns registered name, Business ID, status (active or dissolved), legal form, registered address, name history, and the tax registers the company belongs to.
The official registry
- Registry
- YTJ / PRH Business Information System (Patent and Registration Office + Tax Administration)
- Company ID
- Y-tunnus (Business ID), formatted 1234567-8
- Cost
- Free basic lookup
- Active status
- Active is not enough: read the two TAX registers on the same card. VAT (arvonlisaverovelvollinen) tells you it trades openly. The prepayment register (ennakkoperintarekisteri) matters to you directly: if a Finnish company providing you services is NOT in it, Finnish law obliges YOU to withhold tax at source when you pay them. Established, real companies are always in it.
- Finland is one of the most open registries in the world: PRH publishes the whole company base (800,000+ entities) as a free daily JSON dump AND a keyless REST API at avoindata.prh.fi, so nothing here needs to be paid for or scraped.
- Food producers: the Finnish Food Authority (ruokavirasto.fi) publishes the approved-establishments list (dairies, meat, fish, prepared food) as a downloadable XLSX, with the registration number and exactly what each site is approved to produce.
- Chemicals, pesticides, refrigerants and electrical contracting: Tukes (tukes.fi) runs the free registers of who is licensed to handle them. A supplier working outside its licence is a compliance problem you inherit.
Sector export licences
Being a registered, active company is not the same as being allowed to export a specific product. In Finland, these sectors carry their own export licence or certificate from a named regulator, so a genuine exporter of these goods holds a current one. Ask for it, then check it at the source.
- timbermandatory
phytosanitary certificate from the Finnish Food Authority.
Cross-check the phytosanitary certificate ID inside the Ruokavirasto trade register.
Official source
This is a factual pointer to public records, not legal advice, and the list is not exhaustive.
Before you sign: five asks no registry can answer
The register proves the company exists and who signs. It says nothing about whether the supplier survives a bad quarter, a fire or a key person leaving. Serious suppliers answer these five asks without friction; hesitation on any of them is information too.
- Business continuity: what happens to your order if their plant loses power, a strike hits or their systems go down? Ask for the plan, not a reassurance.
- Liability insurance: is product or professional liability insured, with which insurer and to what ceiling? A certificate of insurance is a one-page email for a real firm.
- Exit terms: how do you terminate if it goes wrong, what notice and fees apply, and how do you get your tooling, molds or data back?
- Support in numbers: ask for response and resolution times as figures, not adjectives. A supplier who commits to hours in writing has a support process; one who writes fast support does not.
- Named people: who exactly runs production and who owns your account? Continuity of a named team matters more than a polished sales deck, and employee-review sites often show whether that team stays.
General commercial hygiene, not legal advice.
Verify it in four steps
- 1
Open the YTJ / PRH Business Information System (Patent and Registration Office + Tax Administration)
YTJ / PRH Business Information System (Patent and Registration Office + Tax Administration) is the official government record of companies in Finland. Basic name or number search is free.
- 2
Search the exact legal name or ID
Search the supplier's registered name or its Y-tunnus (Business ID), formatted 1234567-8. If the name does not match cleanly, treat it as a red flag, it may be a trade name, a different entity, or wrong.
- 3
Confirm it is active, not struck off
Active is not enough: read the two TAX registers on the same card. VAT (arvonlisaverovelvollinen) tells you it trades openly. The prepayment register (ennakkoperintarekisteri) matters to you directly: if a Finnish company providing you services is NOT in it, Finnish law obliges YOU to withhold tax at source when you pay them. Established, real companies are always in it.
- 4
Check it makes what it sells
A real factory carries a manufacturing activity code and a consistent trade history; a middleman reselling everything is the most common mismatch. For an EU company, also validate the VAT number in the free EU VIES system.
This is a factual pointer to public records, not legal advice. For the full method, see the 7 checks that separate a real supplier from a scam.
We do this check for you
On every Finland company we list, we show what the open record says, each linked to its free public source so you can re-check it yourself, no paid badge. And we go past the big directories to the local and craft makers who are too small for them but real, then verify and sort them, so you find genuine Finland suppliers, not just the loudest.
Finland suppliers by sector
Every company on these pages shows what the open record says about it, each fact linked to its free public source.
Related guides
Questions
Is checking a Finland supplier free?
Yes. A basic name or number lookup in the YTJ / PRH Business Information System (Patent and Registration Office + Tax Administration) is free. Some full official extracts are paid, but confirming a company exists and is active costs nothing.
What ID does a Finland company have?
Its Y-tunnus (Business ID), formatted 1234567-8. Ask the supplier for it, then confirm it in the YTJ / PRH Business Information System (Patent and Registration Office + Tax Administration) and check the registered name matches.
How do I know a Finland supplier is a real manufacturer, not a reseller?
The registry's activity code is the tell: a manufacturing code means a real maker, a wholesale or retail code means a trader. Finland is one of the most open registries in the world: PRH publishes the whole company base (800,000+ entities) as a free daily JSON dump AND a keyless REST API at avoindata.prh.fi, so nothing here needs to be paid for or scraped.