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Section 1198A: Name that a company has been required to change

Companies Act 2006 · 2006 c. 46View on legislation.gov.uk

Part 41: Business names — Chapter 1: Restricted or prohibited names

Where a relevant direction has been given to a company to change its name, or it has been ordered under section 73 to change its name, the company must not carry on business in the United Kingdom under the name that it was directed or ordered to change, except as mentioned in subsection (2).

Subsection (1) does not prevent the use by a company of a name if—

the period for complying with the direction or order has not yet expired,
the company complied with the direction or order and has since become registered with the name again following approval given under section 57B, or
the direction was given, or the order was made, before section 25 of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 came fully into force.

If a company uses a name in contravention of this section an offence is committed by—

the company, and
every officer of the company who is in default.

A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale and, for continued contravention, a daily default fine not exceeding one-tenth of level 3 on the standard scale.

In this section—

  • "company" includes an overseas company;

  • "relevant direction" means a direction under section 67, 75, 76, 76A or 76B, other than a direction under section 76B(1)(b) given on the basis that, at the time at which a company's name was registered, the Secretary of State had proper grounds for forming the opinion mentioned in section 57A.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.