If you check French companies, you are used to a national directory that answers “active” or “ceased” for almost any number. Spain works differently. The open source for company facts is the BORME, the Registro Mercantil's official gazette, and it publishes events: incorporations, appointments, address changes, dissolutions. That tells you a lot, but not everything, and a good check says where the gaps are.
Short answer: in Spain, find the company by name, keep its registry sheet (hoja registral), and read its latest acts in the BORME with their dates and links. Don't expect to look a company up by its NIF, and don't read “no dissolution act” as “active”: unless an act says otherwise, the honest status is “unknown”. The examples below are real answers from Fuentio's live API on 12 October 2026.
What you'll learn
- What the BORME is, and why it publishes events rather than a register
- How to find a Spanish company without its NIF
- What a real answer contains, and how to read the status
- What the BORME doesn't tell you, and where to look instead
- What to keep in your file
What the BORME is
The BORME (Boletín Oficial del Registro Mercantil) is published by the BOE, Spain's official state gazette, on working days. Its section A lists the acts registered at the provincial Registros Mercantiles: incorporations, appointments and removals, changes of address, capital or name, dissolutions, extinctions and more. Each entry names the company and gives its registry data, including the sheet (hoja) where the company is registered, such as “H V 5581” in Valencia.
Fuentio reads every section A document published since 2 January 2009 and turns the acts into one record per company. That gives you a lot: the name as registered, the province, the sheet, the latest known address and a dated list of acts, each linked to its official page. It also means a company with no act published since 2009 isn't in it. Our guide to the BORME covers the gazette in detail, and how to read BORME acts explains each act type.
Find the company by name
The NIF (or CIF, for companies) is the number Spanish businesses put on every invoice, so it is the first thing people try. The BORME entries don't carry it, so there is no open, official way to go from a NIF to the company's registry record. When we asked the live API to look up a NIF on 12 October 2026, it answered:
invalid_identifier: 'B12345678' has the format of a NIF/CIF but its check digits are wrong. Next step: Spanish tax-ID (NIF/CIF) lookup isn't supported. Search by company name instead: search_companies(country='ES', query='<company name>').That polite decline is the right behaviour: you get the next step, not a guessed company. So search by name. A search for “telefonica” on the same day returned:
10 of 251 companies matching 'telefonica' in ES (page 1), source: BORME — Boletín Oficial del Registro Mercantil (Sección A). First results: TELEFONICA SA (ES-RMHOJA-M-6164, match 0.95); TELEFONICA TECH SL (ES-RMHOJA-M-32558, match 0.81); TELEFONICA CABLE SA (ES-RMHOJA-M-110013, match 0.80); TELEFONICA INFRA SL (ES-RMHOJA-M-714534, match 0.80); FIBRA TELEFONICA SOCIEDAD ANONIMA (ES-RMHOJA-BI-17116, match 0.80).251 companies share the word. Each result comes with a match score and its reasons, and the search never decides for you which one is right. Compare the name, the legal form and the province with what your counterparty told you, then keep the registry sheet: M-6164 means sheet 6164 at the Registro Mercantil of Madrid. From then on, use the sheet, not the name. Our guide on whether a Spanish company is still active covers the other signals worth checking.
What a real answer contains
Here is what the API returned for Mercadona on 12 October 2026:
1 of 1 companies matching 'mercadona' in ES (page 1), source: BORME — Boletín Oficial del Registro Mercantil (Sección A). First results: MERCADONA SA (ES-RMHOJA-V-5581, match 0.95).Behind that line, the record holds the registry sheet V-5581 in the province of Valencia, the legal form (Sociedad Anónima), the address as the latest act gave it (in Albalat dels Sorells), acts loaded since 23 January 2009, and the latest act: “Revocaciones”, published on 7 October 2026 as BORME-A-2026-194-46, with a link to the BOE page. Each fact carries its source, its licence and the date it was checked.
And the status? It says “unknown”.
Why the status is often “unknown”
The BORME records events. A company that has published a dissolution or an extinction act is clearly no longer an ordinary active company, and the status says so. But the absence of such an act proves nothing: a company can stop trading without publishing anything for years, and the BORME has no field saying “active”. Calling it active would be a guess.
So, unless an act says otherwise, the honest status is “unknown”, and the useful facts are the latest acts and their dates. A recent act shows the company is still filing at the registry. A long silence is worth a question. If you need a formal statement of the current situation, the paid “nota simple informativa” from the Registro Mercantil is the official document.
What the BORME doesn't tell you
- The NIF. Ask your counterparty for it, and check it separately if your process requires it; the Spanish tax agency offers a check for registered users.
- Companies with no act since 2009. They exist, but they aren't in the gazette's open data that Fuentio reads.
- A current, definitive status. Read the latest acts and their dates; order a nota simple if you need certainty.
- Accounts. The annual accounts are filed at the registry, not published in the BORME.
- People. BORME acts name directors and attorneys, but Fuentio serves no person's name: act texts are left out, and only their type, date and link remain.
What to keep in your file
For each Spanish company:
- The registry sheet and the province, which identify the company at its Registro Mercantil.
- The name and legal form as registered.
- The latest acts, with their dates and BOE links.
- The status as the source supports it, “unknown” included.
- The source and the date you checked.
- What you could not confirm: the NIF, a current status, anything outside the acts loaded.
Check a list
The same steps run through an API: search_companies by name (2 units a page), then lookup_company by registry sheet (1 unit), or verify_company (5 units) when you need an outcome with reasons and a proof code. You can call the REST API from your own tools, or connect the MCP server to an AI agent and ask “Find Spanish companies named Telefónica in the BORME.” The docs list every tool, and the examples page shows more real answers. To try it on your own counterparties, the free pilot checks up to 20 French or Spanish companies within 24 hours.
Try it now without a key (20 units a day), or create a free key with 100 units a month: see the pricing page.
See what we cover in France and Spain.
Limits. Spanish records cover companies with a BORME act since 2 January 2009: events, not a full register. Status is “unknown” unless an act says otherwise. There is no lookup by tax ID: search by name. No person's name is served. This article describes open sources; it isn't legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
Can I check a Spanish company by its NIF?
Not in the BORME's open data: its entries don't carry the NIF. Search by company name, then keep the registry sheet.
Does “unknown” status mean the company is inactive?
No. It means no act in the gazette states its situation. Read the latest acts and their dates.
Where does the address come from?
From the latest act that gave one. If no act gave it, the record says so instead of guessing.
What is a registry sheet?
The sheet (hoja) where the company is registered at its provincial Registro Mercantil, such as V-5581 in Valencia. It identifies the company in the BORME.
Sources
- BOE, BORME (Boletín Oficial del Registro Mercantil): boe.es
- BOE, legal notice and reuse conditions: boe.es
- Colegio de Registradores, nota simple: registradores.org