Regno Unito

Checking a retailer established in the United Kingdom

Companies House is free to search and publishes more than most of its European equivalents: company status, insolvency proceedings under way, and filed accounts. It is also the country where the survey found the most companies in difficulty still trading normally online.

78 schede di distributori in questo paese

Live websites, companies in liquidation

Several British retailers surveyed were selling normally online while their company was in liquidation or administration, one with accounts overdue since 2023. This is public and free to check, yet nothing on the shop itself indicates it. For a buyer the consequence is concrete: a warranty or a refund is claimed from a company, and a company in liquidation does not honour them.

The published number does not always lead where you think

A single wrong digit is enough to point a number at a real and unrelated company. The survey found one clear case where the published number belonged to a dissolved Welsh haulage company. One check even demonstrated the risk by accident, trying a plausible number: it matched a gas holding company dissolved in 2010. A guessed number that lands on a real company is more misleading than a gap, because it looks correct.

One retailer in five belongs to a listed group

The United Kingdom shows the highest concentration among the retailers surveyed. Several supposedly independent shops now redirect to a listed group's site, one of them even serving the group's terms and conditions. This is neither a fault nor a negative signal, but it changes who you deal with in a dispute, and it is invisible unless you follow the redirects.

Each profile cites the Companies House number as the site publishes it, with a link to the official record so it can be cross-checked.

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