Legal forms in Romania: SRL, SA, SNC and more

Every legal form in Romania, each with its abbreviation, the kind of entity it is, liability and typical use where they are well established, and the values the Prometiam company object returns.

This guide lists the 16 legal forms the Prometiam dictionary knows for Romania: what each is called, how it is abbreviated, what kind of entity it is and how it appears in the company object. Use it to read the legal_form of a company registered in Romania, or to decode a form you meet in a contract or on an invoice. It is a general reference, not legal advice.

Coverage and limits for Romania: company records only (no officers, no registry-compliance signal, no share capital, no insolvency notices); natural persons and sole traders (PF, PFA, II, IF, AF) are never served. Contains data from the National Trade Register Office (ONRC), CC BY 4.0.

How a legal form appears in the API

Every company object carries four legal-form fields: legal_form (the standard abbreviation, null when the form is not mapped), legal_form_family (the cross-country family, so a private limited company compares across countries), local_legal_form (the register’s own value or code as stored) and local_legal_form_name (the register’s name for it, where it publishes one). Each form below shows the values the API returns for it.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer rk_live_..." \
  "https://api.prometiam.com/functions/v1/risk-api/companies/search?country=RO&name=<company name>"

# each result carries, for example:
#   "legal_form": "SRL"
#   "legal_form_family": "private_limited_company"

Private limited companies in Romania

Private limited company: a company with its own legal personality whose owners are, as a rule, not personally liable for its debts and whose shares are not offered to the public.

Societate cu răspundere limitată (SRL)

• English: Limited liability company (societate cu răspundere limitată)
• Abbreviations: SRL, S.R.L.
• In the API: legal_form SRL, legal_form_family private_limited_company, local_legal_form SRL

Public limited companies in Romania

Public limited company (joint-stock company): a company with its own legal personality and share capital whose owners are, as a rule, not personally liable; the family of forms that can usually raise money from the public.

Societate pe acțiuni (SA)

• English: Joint-stock company (societate pe acțiuni)
• Abbreviations: SA, S.A.
• In the API: legal_form SA, legal_form_family public_limited_company, local_legal_form SA

Societate europeană (SE)

• Variant: European-law form
• English: European company (Societas Europaea)
• Abbreviations: SE
• In the API: legal_form SE, legal_form_family public_limited_company, local_legal_form SE

General partnerships in Romania

General partnership: the owners run the business together and, as a rule, answer personally for its debts.

Societate în nume colectiv (SNC)

• English: General partnership (societate în nume colectiv)
• Abbreviations: SNC
• In the API: legal_form SNC, legal_form_family general_partnership, local_legal_form SNC

Limited partnerships in Romania

Limited partnership: at least one partner answers without limit for the debts, the others only up to what they contributed.

Societate în comandită simplă (SCS)

• English: Limited partnership (societate în comandită simplă)
• Abbreviations: SCS
• In the API: legal_form SCS, legal_form_family limited_partnership, local_legal_form SCS

Partnerships limited by shares in Romania

Partnership limited by shares: a hybrid in which the managing partners are liable without limit and the other owners hold shares.

Societate în comandită pe acțiuni (SCA)

• English: Partnership limited by shares (societate în comandită pe acțiuni)
• Abbreviations: SCA
• In the API: legal_form SCA, legal_form_family partnership_limited_by_shares, local_legal_form SCA

Cooperatives in Romania

Cooperative: an organisation owned and run by its members.

Societate cooperativă (SC)

• English: Cooperative society (societate cooperativă)
• Abbreviations: SC
• In the API: legal_form SC, legal_form_family cooperative, local_legal_form SC

Societate cooperativă europeană (SCE)

• Variant: European-law form
• English: European cooperative society (SCE)
• Abbreviations: SCE
• In the API: legal_form SCE, legal_form_family cooperative, local_legal_form SCE

Cooperativă agricolă (CA)

• Variant: agricultural
• English: Agricultural cooperative (cooperativă agricolă)
• Abbreviations: CA
• In the API: legal_form CA, legal_form_family cooperative, local_legal_form CA

Cooperativă de consum (OCC)

• English: Consumer cooperative (cooperativă de consum)
• Abbreviations: OCC
• In the API: legal_form OCC, legal_form_family cooperative, local_legal_form OCC

Cooperativă meșteșugărească (OCM)

• English: Artisans' cooperative (cooperativă meșteșugărească)
• Abbreviations: OCM
• In the API: legal_form OCM, legal_form_family cooperative, local_legal_form OCM

Cooperativă de credit (OCR)

• Variant: banking and credit
• English: Credit cooperative (cooperativă de credit)
• Abbreviations: OCR
• In the API: legal_form OCR, legal_form_family cooperative, local_legal_form OCR

Organizație cooperatistă (OC)

• English: Cooperative organisation (organizație cooperatistă)
• Abbreviations: OC
• In the API: legal_form OC, legal_form_family cooperative, local_legal_form OC or OC1 or OC2

Economic interest groupings in Romania

Economic interest grouping: members cooperate in a shared activity while staying independent businesses.

Grup de interes economic (GIE)

• English: Economic interest grouping (grup de interes economic)
• Abbreviations: GIE
• In the API: legal_form GIE, legal_form_family economic_interest_grouping, local_legal_form GIE

Grup european de interes economic (GEIE)

• Variant: European-law form
• English: European economic interest grouping (EEIG)
• Abbreviations: GEIE
• In the API: legal_form GEIE, legal_form_family economic_interest_grouping, local_legal_form GEIE

Public bodies in Romania

Public body: a state, local-authority or other public-law entity.

Regie autonomă (RA)

• Variant: publicly owned
• English: Autonomous public enterprise (regie autonomă)
• Abbreviations: RA
• In the API: legal_form RA, legal_form_family public_body, local_legal_form RA

Look up a RO company

See the Romania company data API guide for the register behind these records and the free CUI lookup to try an identifier. For the register states that go with these forms, read company status in Romania. All countries: company legal forms.

Check legal forms in your own data

Search by name or identifier and read legal_form, legal_form_family and local_legal_form on every result, or filter a bulk list by family.

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