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Section 73: Order requiring name to be changed

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

Part 5: A company's name — Chapter 3: Similarity to other names

If an application under section 69 is upheld, the adjudicator shall make an order—

requiring the respondent company to change its name to one that is not an offending name, and
requiring all the respondents—
to take all such steps as are within their power to make, or facilitate the making, of that change, and
not to cause or permit any steps to be taken calculated to result in another company being registered with a name that is an offending name.

An "offending name" means a name that, by reason of its similarity to the name associated with the applicant in which he claims goodwill, would be likely—

to be the subject of a direction under section 67 (power of Secretary of State to direct change of name), or
to give rise to a further application under section 69.

The order must specify a date by which the respondent company's name is to be changed and may be enforced—

in England and Wales or Northern Ireland, in the same way as an order of the High Court;
in Scotland, in the same way as a decree of the Court of Session.

If the respondent company's name is not changed in accordance with the order by the specified date, the adjudicator may determine a new name for the company.

If the adjudicator determines a new name for the respondent company he must give notice of his determination—

to the applicant,
to the respondents, and
to the registrar.

For the purposes of this section a company's name is changed when the change takes effect in accordance with section 81(1) (on the issue of the new certification of incorporation).

Where an order is made under subsection (1), the registrar may omit from the material on the register that is available for public inspection any mention of the name to which the order relates.

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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.