Deregistration from the Transparency Register
If the discloser is ending its lobbying and lobbying consultancy activities permanently or the lobbying becomes a small-scale activity, a deregistration must be submitted. The obligation to disclose information to the Transparency Register ends once the deregistration has been submitted.
The deregistration must be submitted in the service portal of the Transparency register. Before deregistration, the discloser must complete all its outstanding Transparency Register obligations by the deregistration date. This means that the discloser must submit any outstanding disclosures of activities and all financial information for the preceding calendar year.
After the deregistration has been published, the details of the discloser are not removed from the Transparency Register but an update stating that the organisation has left the register is added to the information.
When is deregistration required?
The organisation that has registered in the Transparency Register must submit a deregistration if
it is ending lobbying and lobbying consultancy activities permanently
its lobbying becomes a small-scale activity.
An organisation can only submit notification of becoming a small-scale lobbyist if the limit for small-scale lobbying has not been exceeded during the calendar year in question. A small-scale lobbyist is allowed to have a maximum of five contacts with the lobbying targets during a calendar year. In other words, you cannot leave the register as a small-scale lobbyist in the middle of the year if you have already exceeded the limit for small-scale lobbying during that year.
Before deregistration, you must first submit any outstanding disclosures of activities.
When submitting the deregistration, you must also submit a separate disclosure of activities on which you report your lobbying and lobbying consultancy activities between the start of the reporting period and the deregistration date. For example, if you submit the deregistration on 1 November 2024, you must also submit a separate disclosure of activities to report your lobbying and lobbying consultancy activities between 1 July and 1 November 2024.
The separate disclosure of activities is not required if you deregister because you are only engaged in small-scale activities. However, in connection with the deregistration, you must always submit your financial information for the previous calendar year unless you have already provided the information.
What constitutes permanent discontinuation of lobbying and lobbying consultancy activities?
Dissolution of a lobbying organisation or a situation where a company no longer provides lobbying consultancy services is considered permanent discontinuation of lobbying and lobbying consultancy.
However, a situation where an organisation is otherwise continuing its activities as before but has not engaged in lobbying or lobbying consultancy during a specific period. In such cases, the organisation must state on its disclosure of activities that there have been a maximum of five contacts or no contacts during the reporting period.
If the activities of the discloser are transferred to another operator as part of a corporate acquisition, the activities are considered to continue in the new company and the disclosure obligation is transferred to this company. In such situations, the lobbying activities of the company to be acquired are considered as ended unless the activities continue in its name.
What constitutes a changeover to small-scale lobbying activities?
A changeover to small-scale lobbying activities is a situation where a registered discloser concludes that its lobbying is and will probably remain a small-scale activity. In such cases, the discloser only needs to submit a deregistration to end its disclosure obligation.
Returning to the Transparency Register
If an organisation has left the Transparency Register but intends to restart the activities subject to the disclosure obligation, it must re-register in the Transparency Register. Persons authorised to act on behalf of their organisation in the Transparency Register can re-register the organisation at any time.
Submitting a deregistration
The deregistration must be submitted in the service portal of the Transparency Register. We will add the instructions for submitting a deregistration in the near future.
A deregistration that has been submitted by an actor becoming a small-scale lobbyist is checked by the controller. A deregistration submitted by an actor ending its activities permanently is published on the Transparency Register website immediately after its publication.
For more information, contact avoimuusrekisteri@vtv.fi.