Glossary

Micro-enterprise

Also called: microenterprise

What it means in practice

The count is not only of the business itself. Holdings in or by other companies can be added in, so a sole trader who owns part of another firm may fall outside it. Being one shifts a role at home and changes nothing abroad.

The rules that give it meaning

• What counts as a micro-enterprise

  Applies now

  A micro-enterprise is a business with fewer than 10 people whose yearly turnover or balance sheet total stays at or below 2 million euro. The catch is that these are not always just one company's own numbers. If another company owns a quarter or more of the business, a share of that company's staff and money gets counted in too. If one company controls the other outright, all of it counts. So even a one-person business can fall outside the definition.

  Source: Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC, Annex, Art. 2(3), Art. 3 and Art. 6 — read from this source on 12 August 2026

• The exception for very small businesses

  Applies now

  There is one way out of counting as the manufacturer of packaging carrying a business's own brand. Two things both have to be true: the business is a micro-enterprise, which the rules define by staff numbers and money, and the company supplying the packaging is based in the same country. When both hold, the supplier counts as the manufacturer instead.

  Source: Regulation (EU) 2025/40, Art. 3(1), point (13)(b) — read from this source on 12 August 2026

Work out which rules apply to you · The other words