KBO Number on Google Business Profile: Required?

Short answer: no. WER article III.74 (Wetboek van economisch recht, the Belgian Code of Economic Law) speaks of documents that emanate from the company. A Google Business Profile does not strictly emanate from the company. Google hosts, formats and moderates the listing. The legal obligation targets your own website, your invoices and your commercial documents. Not your listing on Google.

Long answer: put the KBO number in the profile anyway. The work is one extra sentence in the description field. The payoff comes in customer trust, in visibility through AI search assistants and in a legal grey area covered at zero cost. One clarification up front for an international audience: this article is about Belgium, not the Netherlands. Belgian law (the WER, with the KBO as register) is entirely different from Dutch law (Handelsregisterwet, with the KVK as register). And if you want to check whether the genuinely mandatory details are on your own website, you can run a free scan.

What Belgian law requires

Four provisions work together:

WER article III.74 requires every business registered in the Kruispuntbank van Ondernemingen (KBO) to state its company number (ondernemingsnummer) on all deeds, invoices, announcements, communications, letters, orders and other documents emanating from the business. Long-standing practice and case law extend this to websites through consistent interpretation.

WER Book XII (Information and transparency), articles XII.6 and following, transposes the E-Commerce Directive 2000/31/EC into Belgian law. Every provider of an information society service must make identification details available. The KBO number is one of them.

WER Book XV (Sanctions). Article XV.70 sanctions the failure to register and article XV.77 sanctions the failure to display the identification details. The criminal fine ranges from 26 euros to 10,000 euros.

FOD Economie / SPF Économie is the supervisory authority for the Book XII obligations. The FSMA and the NBB do not intervene on these questions except in regulated sectors.

For the website-side obligation in detail, see our guide on the ondernemingsnummer on your Belgian website.

Does a Google Business Profile replace the mandatory notices?

No, and this is the first confusion to clear up, because it is the most expensive one.

WER article III.74 targets documents that emanate from the company. A Google Business Profile is published by Google. The HTML, the formatting, the moderation and the hosting all belong to Google. The business contributes content through a form, but the service itself is not the company's own. A Belgian website without the mandatory notices is not "saved" because the Google profile shows the KBO number. The WER sanction still applies and FOD Economie can act on it.

The practical conclusion:

• On your own website: mandatory (WER III.74 and Book XII). Details reachable from the footer.
• On your Google Business Profile: grey area, strongly recommended. Never as a substitute.

Three reasons to add the KBO number anyway

Customers verify before they make contact. In hospitality, trades, personal services and independent consultancy, Google is the first place people look. A KBO number in the description builds immediate trust. A profile without one looks weaker next to two competitors that do show theirs, even when nothing objectively separates the three businesses.

AI search assistants anchor the entity to the profile. Google AI Overviews, Bing Copilot and ChatGPT use Business Profiles as a structured source to connect a search query to a real-world entity. A description containing "Company number: 0123.456.789" anchors the profile to the official KBO registration. Without that anchor, disambiguation is harder and AI models stay more cautious about recommending the business.

The grey area gets covered for free. If case law one day extends the scope of WER III.74 to third-party platforms controlled by the business, the consequences will hit profiles that listed nothing. A profile that is already complete carries no such risk.

KBO and BCE: the same register

This point prevents a very common mistake. The Kruispuntbank van Ondernemingen (KBO) and the Banque-Carrefour des Entreprises (BCE) are the same register. The language differs, the number stays identical. A Dutch-speaking business in Antwerp, a French-speaking business in Charleroi and a bilingual business in Brussels all use the same 10-digit number.

There is no separate "BCE number" for French-speaking customers and no separate "KBO number" for Flemish customers. One registration, one number, two official names.

Useful facts about the KBO number

• Format: 10 digits, usually written as "0123.456.789" or "BE 0123.456.789" when it also serves as the VAT number.
• Look it up: KBO Public Search, free and official.
• VAT number: for VAT-registered businesses, the VAT number is identical to the company number preceded by "BE". Example: BE 0123.456.789.
• Non-profits (VZW/ASBL): required to register in the KBO since 2018 and assigned a company number. The identification duty applies to them too.
• Sole traders and natural persons: also receive a 10-digit KBO number.

Company number versus establishment unit number

A frequent point of confusion: every place of business receives its own 10-digit establishment unit number (vestigingseenheidsnummer), separate from the company number. On documents emanating from the business, only the company number is required. On the Google Business Profile, list only the company number as well. The establishment unit number adds nothing to the trust signal and weighs the description down.

Where to put it in the profile

The description field under "About the business" in the Business Profile. Specifications:

• Maximum 750 characters.
• The first 250 characters are visible before the "More" truncation.
• No URLs allowed. Google removes them during moderation.
• No phone numbers in the description. The profile has its own phone field.
• Allowed: factual business information (company number, founding year, certifications, specialties).

Place the company number at the end of the first 250 characters.

An example that fits

Bakkerij De Vos has been a fixture in the centre of Antwerp since 1995. Fresh bread, artisan patisserie and coffee on site. Open Tuesday to Saturday, 7 am to 6 pm. Catering and event orders on request. Company number: 0123.456.789.

Character count: 231. It fits inside the visible preview.

What the example leaves out: no URL (Google blocks them), no second phone number (the dedicated field is already filled in), no separate VAT number (it overlaps with the company number preceded by "BE"), no full address (it already sits in the profile's address field).

What does not belong in the description

• A VAT number separate from the KBO number. It is the same number with "BE" in front. Stating it twice adds no information.
• The establishment unit number. It differs from the company number and is not needed on the listing.
• RPR (Rechtspersonenregister) / RPM (Registre des Personnes Morales). This is a category inside the KBO, not a separate number.
• A repeated phone number. The profile has a dedicated phone field. A duplicate is treated by Google as a spam signal.
• Long legal text. Privacy policy, terms and conditions and cookie policy belong on the website, not in a marketing description.
• URLs. Forbidden by Google. Use the profile's website field.

Where each detail belongs

Fixed in five minutes

1. Sign in at business.google.com with the Google account that manages the profile. Google now routes most editing through Google Search itself: type your own business name and click "Manage your business profile" in the business card.
2. Select the right profile if you manage several.
3. Click "Edit profile", then "About the business", then "Description".
4. Add a sentence such as "Company number: 0123.456.789." at the end of the first 250 characters.
5. Save. Google's moderation usually approves the change within 24 to 48 hours.

If the change is rejected, the most common cause is a URL or phone number in the description. Remove it and save again.

Common questions

Does my KBO number have to be on my Google Business Profile?

No, not explicitly. WER article III.74 covers documents that emanate from the company. A Google Business Profile does not strictly emanate from the company, it is hosted and formatted by Google. In practice you should still add your KBO number to the profile: customers verify before they make contact, AI search assistants use the profile for entity anchoring and the legal grey area is covered at no cost.

Where do I put the company number in my profile?

In the description field under "About the business" on business.google.com. The field allows up to 750 characters, but only the first 250 are visible before the "More" truncation. Place the company number at the end of those first 250 characters so it is visible without expanding.

Is a KBO number the same as a BCE number?

Yes. KBO (Kruispuntbank van Ondernemingen) is the Dutch name and BCE (Banque-Carrefour des Entreprises) is the French name for the same register. The number is identical regardless of language or region. A Flemish, Brussels or Walloon business uses the same 10-digit number.

Can a Google Business Profile replace the mandatory notices on my website?

No. WER article III.74 and Book XII WER require the identification details on the company's own website, not on a third-party platform such as a Google profile. Anyone who lists the KBO number only on the profile and omits the mandatory notices on the website risks a criminal fine of 26 to 10,000 euros under articles XV.70 and XV.77 WER.

Do I need to list my VAT number separately next to the KBO number?

No. For VAT-registered businesses the VAT number is simply the company number preceded by BE. Example: KBO 0123.456.789 is the same number as BE 0123.456.789. Listing it twice in a short 250-character description adds no information and looks cluttered.

Does this identification duty also apply to non-profits and sole traders?

Yes. Non-profits (VZW/ASBL) have been required to register in the KBO since 2018 and also receive a 10-digit company number. Sole traders and self-employed people are registered as well and are subject to the same identification duty under WER article III.74. The company number belongs on the website, on invoices and preferably also in the Google description.

Want to know if your website complies?

Adding the KBO number to your Google Business Profile costs nothing. The bigger question is whether your website itself meets WER III.74 and Book XII WER: business name and KBO number in the footer, an accessible page with the legal notices required in Belgium, a GDPR-compliant privacy policy, a cookie banner that follows the GBA/APD position and terms and conditions if you sell online.

Run a free scan of your website and see within two minutes which mandatory elements are missing. No account needed.

Sources

• Wetboek van economisch recht, article III.74 (ejustice.just.fgov.be, NL)
• Code de droit économique, coordinated text (ejustice.just.fgov.be, FR)
• FOD Economie, elektronische handel (Book XII WER) (economie.fgov.be, NL)
• SPF Économie, commerce électronique (Book XII CDE) (economie.fgov.be, FR)
• Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (KBO/BCE) (economie.fgov.be, EN)
• KBO/BCE Public Search (kbopub.economie.fgov.be)
• Directive 2000/31/EC on electronic commerce (eur-lex.europa.eu)

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This is technical analysis, not legal advice. Consult a qualified lawyer for specific legal guidance.