What a sole trader providing services needs
For freelancers, consultants, tradespeople and sole traders who provide services to customers, whether consumers or companies.
The law as at
5 obligations on this list can be checked by the website check straight from your address. No account needed.
We only read the public page you give us. We store nothing and change nothing.
With services, what matters is who you provide them to. If the customer is a consumer, meaning a natural person acting outside their business, the information obligations and liability for defects in the service under the Consumer Protection Act apply. If the customer is a company, those rules do not apply and everything depends on the contract.
Sole traders often pay for this distinction in both directions: towards consumers they fail to meet the information obligations, and towards companies they rely on a verbal agreement that is hard to prove in a dispute.
Checklist of obligations
7 items, 5 of which the free check reads straight from your website. The check does not cover the rest.
- The website check verifies this
Identification details on the website and in documents
Business name, place of business and company ID number (IČO) belong on the website, in written official correspondence and on invoices. For services provided at a distance, the telephone number and the email address as well.
§ 3a of the Commercial Code, § 5(1) of Act 108/2024 Coll., § 4 of Act 22/2004 Coll.
- The website check verifies this
Information before a contract with a consumer is concluded
The scope of the service, the total price, the time for performance, the payment terms and a notice about liability for defects in the service. If the contract is concluded at a distance or off business premises, a withdrawal notice is added.
§ 5 and § 15 of Act 108/2024 Coll.
- The website check verifies this
Liability for defects in the service
When a defect in a service is notified, the provider has to issue a written confirmation with a period for remedying it, which must not exceed 30 days. A refusal of liability has to be communicated in writing together with the reasons.
§ 4(1)(j) and (k) of Act 108/2024 Coll.
- The website check verifies this
Withdrawal from distance contracts
If the contract was concluded at a distance, the consumer has 14 days to withdraw. The right ends only once the service has been fully supplied, and then only if the customer gave express consent in advance to it starting and declared that they had been informed. If it started without that, the provider cannot ask for payment for what has been supplied so far.
§ 19(1)(a) and § 21(5) of Act 108/2024 Coll.
- Cannot be verified from outside
A written contract for work for companies
With B2B customers the law does not prescribe the content of the contract, so what the parties agree is decisive. The essentials are the scope of the work, the deadlines, the payment terms, penalties for delay, the rights to the result of the work and the way the cooperation ends.
The Commercial Code
- The website check verifies this
Privacy policy
Even an independent sole trader is a controller if they process customer data. When working for a company, where they process the data of its clients, they are usually a processor instead and need a data processing agreement with it.
Articles 13 and 28 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Act 18/2018 Coll.
- Cannot be verified from outside
Confidentiality when accessing a client's data
Consultancy and technical work routinely involves access to data that the client considers sensitive. The Commercial Code protects confidential information from negotiations even without a separate agreement, but the scope is then disputable; a confidentiality agreement defines it and with corporate customers it tends to be a condition of the cooperation.
§ 17 and § 271 of the Commercial Code
What this list does not cover
The list is built on legislation whose wording we have verified against the Slov-Lex register. The areas below fall outside it and have to be dealt with elsewhere.
- Trade licensing, professional competence and regulated trades
- Levies, taxes and records of income
- Occupational safety for activities carried out at the customer's premises
- Special rules for regulated professions
Common misconceptions
Assuming that without a website nothing is needed
The information obligations attach to concluding a contract with a consumer, not to having a website. They apply just the same when the deal is agreed over email or a message.
Confusing a consumer with a company
A consumer is a natural person acting outside their business. A sole trader who orders a service for their own activity is not a consumer and does not have the protection under the Consumer Protection Act.
A verbal agreement on a larger job
It is valid, but hard to prove in a dispute. Where the result of the work is protected by copyright, without a written agreement it may also be unclear what exactly the customer may do with it.
Not issuing a confirmation that a defect was notified
For services provided to consumers, a written confirmation stating the period is mandatory, and it has to be issued without delay after the defect is notified. The period must not exceed 30 days.
Frequently asked questions
Does a sole trader need terms and conditions?
The document is not mandatory; what is mandatory is the range of information the consumer has to receive before the contract is concluded. For repeat work with several customers a document is the simplest way to meet that once instead of every time from scratch.
Does the 14-day withdrawal apply to my services as well?
If the customer is a consumer and the contract was concluded at a distance or off business premises, yes. With company customers, no.
Can I exclude liability for defects in the contract?
Not towards a consumer; such a clause is invalid. Towards company customers liability can be limited by contract, but not for damage caused intentionally.