EU Company Status Watch

Watch French BODACC notices and UK Companies House for dissolution and insolvency-style status changes. France uses the free BODACC open-data API (no key). The UK uses the Companies House streaming API and an ETag profile check when you supply your own free API key.

This Actor is a screening / public-register aid, not legal advice. It does not replace a bailiff, an insolvency practitioner, or an official Companies House filing search.

What does EU Company Status Watch do?

It re-checks a list of French and UK companies and writes one row when a watched status appears or changes.

1. You pass companies (name, number, country) and a watchlistId.
2. France is read from BODACC annonces commerciales. A saved ETag sends If-None-Match on the next run.
3. The UK, when companiesHouseApiKey is set, reads the Companies House streaming API for at most 90 seconds (default 75, inside the 60–90 second window), saves the stream timepoint, then ETag-checks GET /company/{number} for any GB company the stream did not already update.
4. The first baseline for a company is stored and is not charged. A later fingerprint change (notice id or company_status) is a status-change event.

Unchanged re-checks, error rows and not-found rows are not charged.

Why use EU Company Status Watch?

• One scheduled run covers a French SIREN list and, with your own key, a UK company-number list.
• Daily re-checks that see the same notice or the same Companies House status finish without a status-change charge.
• The company cap (maxCompanies, default 50) is repeated in the run status message, so a long list cannot silently grow the bill.
• The run uses 256 MB. The Companies House stream stops at the cap and resumes from the saved timepoint.
• Schedule it, call it from the Apify API, or download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML.

What data can EU Company Status Watch extract?

Field	Meaning
source	FR_BODACC or UK_COMPANIES_HOUSE
status	Normalised: dissolved, insolvency, liquidation, notFound, error, …
statusDetail	Raw BODACC nature or Companies House company_status
noticeId	BODACC publication number or stream timepoint
eventType	first-seen (free baseline), status-change (charged), notFound or error
charged	true only for a status-change row
disclaimer	Repeated on every row

How to watch a company

1. Open the Actor and add companies in Companies to watch. Use FR with a SIREN, or GB with a company number.
2. For UK companies, paste your free Companies House API key. Without it, GB companies are skipped and the run still finishes.
3. Set Watchlist ID to a stable name if you have more than one schedule. Leave Max companies per run at 50 unless the list is shorter.
4. Start the run. The first baseline is free. Later changes show up as status-change rows.
5. Schedule the saved task on weekday mornings. A 304 or an identical fingerprint should finish in a few seconds.

How much does a status change cost?

Pricing is pay per event. The event name is status-change and the price is $0.003 per changed row.

• The first baseline for a company is free.
• An unchanged re-check is free and is not written again while Only new is on.
• An error row and a notFound row are free.
• There is no charge for starting the Actor. Platform compute is separate and the run is pinned to 256 MB.

maxCompanies (default 50, maximum 200) is the per-run cap. The status message names that cap and how many companies were actually watched. maxItems caps how many rows are pushed.

Input

See the Input tab for the full schema.

{
  "companies": [
    {"name": "RENAULT", "number": "780129987", "country": "FR"},
    {"name": "Example Ltd", "number": "00445790", "country": "GB"}
  ],
  "companiesHouseApiKey": "YOUR_FREE_KEY",
  "watchlistId": "crm-eu",
  "onlyNew": true,
  "mode": "status-change",
  "lookbackDays": 14,
  "maxCompanies": 50,
  "maxItems": 50,
  "maxStreamSeconds": 75
}

maxStreamSeconds defaults to 75 and cannot go above 90. The latest Companies House timepoint is saved on the watchlist so the next run continues.

Output

You can download the dataset in JSON, HTML, CSV or Excel.

{
  "source": "FR_BODACC",
  "country": "FR",
  "name": "RENAULT",
  "registrationNumber": "780129987",
  "status": "liquidation",
  "eventType": "first-seen",
  "charged": false,
  "noticeId": "BXA2026001"
}

A later notice for the same company is eventType: "status-change" and charged: true.

Tips

• Keep one watchlistId per schedule. Reset watchlist state drops stored ETags, timepoints and seen notices for that id.
• Leave the Companies House stream at the default. It stops inside 60–90 seconds and the timepoint is stored.
• A long company list should stay within maxCompanies. The status message reports the cap when the run ends.

FAQ, disclaimers and support

Official BODACC and Companies House records can name people involved in a proceeding. This Actor copies public register fields only. It does not collect private account data, and it is not a credit rating.

Personal data is protected by the GDPR in the European Union and by other laws elsewhere. Use the rows as a screening aid when you have a legitimate reason to look up a company you already hold. If you are unsure, ask your lawyers.

Questions and bugs belong on the Issues tab. Programmatic runs use the API tab.

Sources and terms

• BODACC / DILA open data, Licence Ouverte. No key.
• Companies House REST and streaming API: free key, Open Government Licence, rate limits. You bring the key.