Deregistration from the Transparency Register
If the discloser is ending its lobbying and lobbying consultancy activities permanently or the lobbying becomes a small-scale activity, a deregistration must be submitted. The obligation to disclose information to the Transparency Register ends once the deregistration has been submitted.
The deregistration must be submitted in the service portal of the Transparency register. Before deregistration, the discloser must complete all its outstanding Transparency Register obligations by the deregistration date. This means that the discloser must submit any outstanding disclosures of activities and all financial information for the preceding calendar year.
After the deregistration has been published, the details of the discloser are not removed from the Transparency Register but an update stating that the organisation has left the register is added to the information.
When is deregistration required?
The organisation that has registered in the Transparency Register must submit a deregistration if
it is ending lobbying and lobbying consultancy activities permanently
its lobbying becomes a small-scale activity.
An organisation can only submit notification of becoming a small-scale lobbyist if the limit for small-scale lobbying has not been exceeded during the calendar year in question. A small-scale lobbyist is allowed to have a maximum of five contacts with the lobbying targets during a calendar year. In other words, you cannot leave the register as a small-scale lobbyist in the middle of the year if you have already exceeded the limit for small-scale lobbying during that year.
Before deregistration, you must first submit any outstanding disclosures of activities.
When submitting the deregistration, you must also submit a separate disclosure of activities on which you report your lobbying and lobbying consultancy activities between the start of the reporting period and the deregistration date. For example, if you submit the deregistration on 1 November 2024, you must also submit a separate disclosure of activities to report your lobbying and lobbying consultancy activities between 1 July and 1 November 2024.
The separate disclosure of activities is not required if you deregister because you are only engaged in small-scale activities. However, in connection with the deregistration, you must always submit your financial information for the previous calendar year unless you have already provided the information.
What constitutes permanent discontinuation of lobbying and lobbying consultancy activities?
Dissolution of a lobbying organisation or a situation where a company no longer provides lobbying consultancy services is considered permanent discontinuation of lobbying and lobbying consultancy.
However, a situation where an organisation is otherwise continuing its activities as before but has not engaged in lobbying or lobbying consultancy during a specific period. In such cases, the organisation must state on its disclosure of activities that there have been a maximum of five contacts or no contacts during the reporting period.
If the activities of the discloser are transferred to another operator as part of a corporate acquisition, the activities are considered to continue in the new company and the disclosure obligation is transferred to this company. In such situations, the lobbying activities of the company to be acquired are considered as ended unless the activities continue in its name.
What constitutes a changeover to small-scale lobbying activities?
A changeover to small-scale lobbying activities is a situation where a registered discloser concludes that its lobbying is and will probably remain a small-scale activity. In such cases, the discloser only needs to submit a deregistration to end its disclosure obligation.
Returning to the Transparency Register
If an organisation has left the Transparency Register but intends to restart the activities subject to the disclosure obligation, it must re-register in the Transparency Register. Persons authorised to act on behalf of their organisation in the Transparency Register can re-register the organisation at any time.
Submitting a deregistration
1. Start the deregistration process
1. Log in to the Transparency Register’s service portal.
2. You must submit all outstanding disclosures of activities before the deregistration. Your organisation has outstanding disclosures of activities if the button ‘Submit a disclosure of activities’ or ‘Continue with the disclosure of activities’ is displayed on the service portal’s front page.
Note that you must also submit the disclosure of activities if the activities of your organisation have been in small scale or you have not had any activities during the reporting period.
3. Click the button ‘Submit deregistration’ on the service portal’s front page to start the deregistration (Figure 1).
If you are submitting the deregistration because your lobbying is in small-scale, see the instructions in chapter 2. If you are submitting the deregistration because you are ending the activities, see the instructions in chapter 3.
Figure 1. ‘Submit deregistration’ button.
2. Submitting deregistration because your lobbying becomes a small-scale activity
1. Select ‘Lobbying becomes a small-scale activity’ as the reason for the deregistration (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Deregistration as a small-scale actor.
2. You must decide whether to submit a disclosure of activities detailing your lobbying in the period between the latest disclosure of activities and the deregistration. You are not required to submit a disclosure of activities if your activities have been in small scale.
After you have selected ‘I want to submit a disclosure of activities’, you are asked to give the scale of your lobbying activities during the reporting period (Figure 3). After you have given the scale of your activities, you can list the subjects of your lobbying. The disclosure of activities in connection with deregistration is completed in the same way as an ordinary disclosure of activities. For more detailed instructions for completing the disclosure, visit Disclosing lobbying activities and Disclosing lobbying consultancy activities.
Figure 3. You are not required to submit a disclosure of activities in connection with deregistration if your activities have been in small scale.
3. Click ‘Publish’ to publish the deregistration without a disclosure of activities or after completing the disclosure. Confirm the publication.
4. The deregistration will be checked by the registrar before publication. After the registrar has approved the deregistration, an acknowledgement of the deregistration and the end of the disclosure obligation is sent to the email addresses given on the registration.
In unclear situations, the registrar will contact the contact persons listed on the registration.
Click ‘Save draft’ if you want to save the deregistration and the disclosure of activities as drafts. Click ‘Continue deregistration’ on the front page to continue the completion of the disclosure.
When you return to edit the deregistration, it appears as blank. However, the subjects become visible when you select the reason for the deregistration again, ‘I want to complete the disclosure of activities’ check box and the scale of your lobbying.
3. Deregistration when the activities are ended permanently
1. Select ‘Permanent ending of lobbying or lobbying consultancy’ as the reason for the deregistration.
2. Complete the disclosure of activities detailing your lobbying or lobbying consultancy activities in the period between the latest disclosure of activities and the deregistration (Figure 4).
The disclosure of activities in connection with deregistration is completed in the same way as an ordinary disclosure of activities. For more detailed instructions for completing the disclosure, visit Disclosing lobbying activities and Disclosing lobbying consultancy activities.
Figure 4. You must complete a disclosure of activities when you are ending your activities.
3. Click ‘Publish’ to publish the deregistration after you have completed the disclosure of activities. Confirm the publication. The deregistration and the disclosure of activities are published immediately on the website of the Transparency Register, after which the organisation is no longer obliged to submit disclosures.
Click ‘Save draft’ if you want to save the deregistration and the disclosure of activities as drafts. Click ‘Continue deregistration’ on the front page to continue the completion of the disclosure.
When you return to edit the deregistration, it appears as blank. However, the subjects become visible when you select the reason for the deregistration and the scale of your lobbying again.
4. Stopping deregistration
1. Click ‘Exit’ on the deregistration if you want to stop the deregistration. This is all you need to do if you have not yet saved the deregistration as a draft or added subjects to the disclosure of activities.
2. If the deregistration has been saved, a notification reminding you of an incomplete deregistration is displayed on the service portal’s front page (Figure 5). In that case, you should first click ‘Continue deregistration’ and then ‘Stop deregistration’ (Figure 6).
Figure 5. Reminder of incomplete deregistration.
Figure 6. Stopping deregistration.
Contact avoimuusrekisteri@vtv.fi if you have sent a deregistration to the registrar for checks as a small-scale lobbyist and you want to stop the deregistration.
5. Return to the Transparency Register: re-registration
1. Log in to the service portal.
2. Click ‘Submit registration’ on the service portal’s front page (Figure 7).
3. The details of the previous registration are displayed on the registration. Update the details and publish the registration. For more detailed instructions for submitting the registration, visit How to submit registration.
Figure 7. You can re-register as a lobbyist by submitting the registration again.