Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
A private individual can clear out their attic without a single piece of paper. Once you are a dealer that changes — and it changes differently in each of the four countries.
Yes, you can trade there. Just not on the same terms as the neighbour clearing out their attic.
Two kinds of people stand side by side at every antiques market. Private individuals sell their own belongings, and almost nothing is required of them. You sell what you bought in order to resell it. That is itinerant trading, and there are rules for it.
Across the four countries this knowledge base is written for, those rules differ not in detail but in design. One country wants a card, one abolished its permit, one leaves everything to the municipality, and one leaves it to the council. What follows is what applies today, country by country, with the source.
From the council, per location. No national permit.
Valid four years, 30 euro, through the CCI or the CMA.
Market or pitch permit per municipality. No national card.
The company number at the Crossroads Bank is the authorisation.
The same question four times, four different answers. If you trade in two countries, the paperwork from one does not travel to the other.
There is no national permit. In England and Wales the local council issues a street trading licence or a street trading consent, under Schedule 4 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982.
Your application sets out what you want to sell and what kind of stall or container you will use. The council may attach conditions to that — size, type of stall — and has a duty to grant the licence unless there are grounds to refuse it.
Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own arrangements. If you trade there, check with the council concerned: the English rule does not automatically apply.
France does work with a card: the carte permettant l’exercice d’une activité commerciale ou artisanale ambulante. It is required as soon as you trade outside the municipality of your registered office or home.
You do not need it if you trade only at markets in your own municipality. Farmers and fishermen selling their own produce are also exempt. A brocante or vide-grenier additionally counts as a vente au déballage, which must be notified to the mayor in advance on form cerfa 13939; the same site may only be used for it for two months a year.
Code de commerce, articles L123-29 to L123-31 and R123-208-1 to R123-208-8 for the card; L310-2 and R310-8 for the vente au déballage.
The Netherlands has no national trader card and no national permit. It is all local, in two forms: a marktvergunning for a pitch on a regular market, applied for at the municipality where that market is held, and a standplaatsvergunning for a stand-alone pitch outside a market, either fixed or seasonal.
For both, registration in the KVK trade register is required, and the municipality asks for it when you apply. The conditions themselves vary by municipality, but usually come down to the same points: no nuisance, no danger to traffic, and requirements about the appearance of your stall or vehicle.
The practical consequence: five municipalities means five applications. Count in weeks, not days.
Since 1 April 2024 Flanders no longer issues the authorisation for itinerant activities. Your company number at the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises takes its place, provided the itinerant activity is actually registered against your business. At an inspection you show a digital QR code and your identity card.
In the Brussels-Capital Region the permit for markets, antiques markets, events and public space was dropped by decree of 22 February 2024, replaced by an identification board on the stall carrying your name, trading name, municipality of establishment and company number.
The authorisation never applied to associations and private individuals at antiques markets, to sales to other businesses, or to presentations at trade fairs. The underlying rules are the law of 25 June 1993 and the royal decree of 24 September 2006, with the Flemish decree of 21 April 2017.
Under four different systems, three things come back everywhere.
Companies House or HMRC in the UK, RCS or RNE in France, KVK in the Netherlands, the Crossroads Bank in Belgium. Without registration there is nothing to license.
Even where the national permit disappeared, the council, the municipality or the market operator still decides who stands where.
A licence, a card, a board or a QR code. Four shapes of the same question: who are you, and under which number do you trade?
The paperwork is the easy part. The expensive problem stands in front of your stall all day.
A visitor who stops at a piece gives you something no advertisement can buy: attention, minutes of it, freely given. Large brands now build entire stands at public events to get exactly that. You get it for free, dozens of times a market day. And of almost everyone who buys nothing, nothing remains: no name, no photo, no reason to find you again next week.
That does require your stock to sit somewhere you can show it from. See the stock list page and stock management for antiques and vintage.
Four countries, four systems. A Belgian dealer trading at a French market does need the card there, even though their own was abolished at home.
A council, a Dutch municipality and a French CCI all work in weeks. Starting two days before the market means not standing at it.
A street trading licence covers the area of the council that issued it. The next town is a new application.
The exemption for private individuals and associations does not cover buying in order to resell — not even one Saturday a month.
No licence, no board, no QR code. In all four countries that is the first thing an inspector asks for.
Written on 8 September 2026. Checked on 8 September 2026 against legislation.gov.uk for the UK, Service-Public Entreprendre for France, Ondernemersplein for the Netherlands, and vlaanderen.be plus Brussels Economy and Employment for Belgium.
This is an explanation, not legal advice. Which licence and which registration apply to your business is something to check with your accountant or with the council or municipality where you want to trade.
Every piece gets its own number, its own photo and its own page. The label with the QR code prints itself, and whoever walked past your stall finds the piece again the same evening.
Free up to 10 pieces, no card details and no end date.
In England and Wales, yes. The council issues a street trading licence or a street trading consent under Schedule 4 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982. Your application states what you intend to sell and what kind of stall or container you will use, and the council may attach conditions to it. There is no national permit: each council decides for its own area, and Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate arrangements.
No. Street trading is licensed locally. That means the rules, the fees and the waiting times differ from one council to the next, and a licence from one council does not carry over to another. If you trade at markets in several towns, you are dealing with several councils.
A carte permettant l’exercice d’une activité commerciale ou artisanale ambulante, if you sell outside the municipality where your business or home is registered. It is valid for four years, costs 30 euro, and is applied for with form cerfa 14022 through the CCI or the CMA. It arrives within fifteen days to a month. Trading only at markets in your own municipality does not require the card.
In Flanders, yes. Since 1 April 2024 the authorisation for itinerant activities, known as the leurkaart, is no longer issued. The company number in the Belgian Crossroads Bank for Enterprises now serves as the authorisation, provided the itinerant activity is actually registered against the business. In the Brussels-Capital Region the permit was dropped by decree of 22 February 2024, replaced by an identification board on the stall.
Broadly yes, and that is where the confusion starts. The exemption for private individuals and associations does not cover anyone who buys in order to resell. As soon as you do that you are a dealer, and the itinerant trading rules of the country you are standing in apply — even if it is one Saturday a month.