Prior to the promulgation of the Consumer Protection Act, 2008 (Act No.68 of 2008) (CPA), companies could have a registered name with the Companies and Intellectual Commission (CIPC or CIPRO as it used to be known) and trade under a separate name (trading name) as long as the official company stationery included the registered name with the Companies and Intellectual Commission.

This allowed a registered company to have various trading names that it traded under representing different divisions or operations.

If these trade names were not registered, there was always a risk that another company could register the name and have legal rights to that name.

With the introduction of the CPA it brought an end to trading names as we have known them in the past. The CPA requires all business names (trading names) that were being used by companies to be registered with the Registrar of Companies, allowing multiple names to be registered for a single company.

In terms of schedule 2(5)(1) of the CPA, the business names cannot be registered until a date still to be determined by the Minister by notice in the Gazette.

Therefore the CPA has prohibited the use of trading names and requires business names to be registered with the Registrar of Companies. However to date the Minister has not yet filed the required notice in the Gazette and there is no way to register these business names with the Registrar which has left many businesses trading with trading names in contravention of CPA.

Once the Minister has placed a notice in the Gazette we will be able proceed with the registration of business names (trading names).

Esther Rengasamy

Secretarial Department, Durban