A Representative office in Croatia may be founded by a foreign person performing an economic activity, or a national or international economic association from countries that are not members of the European Union or of the European Economic Area. The representative office can be founded for the purpose of market research and for purpose of representing the parent company. It does not have the status of a legal entity and is considered a part of the founder. It cannot perform activities from the group of activities which the parent company does, i.e., contract jobs for the parent company, but may performs activities as ordered by the parent company. Exceptionally, representative offices of foreign airlines may also sell transport documents pursuant to interstate agreements concluded by Croatia and international conventions.
The representative office operates under the parent company with the specific designation that it is a representative office. The representative office is to be registered in the Register of Representative Offices of Foreign Persons in the Republic of Croatia, which is maintained by the Ministry of Economy and the representative office may begin operating only after its registration in the Register.
After accession of Croatia to the European Union, since 2014 companies based in other EU member states, and those in the European Economic Area, may no longer open representative offices in the Republic of Croatia, but only register a branch office or incorporate a local company.
