A branch office is not a real company in the legal sense of the company

First of all, look at the provisions of the Company Law:

Article 14 The company may set up a branch. To establish a branch, it is necessary to apply for registration with the company registration authority and obtain a business license. A branch office does not have legal personality, and its civil liability is borne by the company.

A company may establish a subsidiary, which has the status of a legal person and independently bears civil liability in accordance with the law.

Secondly, the interpretation of the Civil Procedure Law stipulates that a branch office may be a party to a civil lawsuit.

Therefore, a branch is a branch of a company, but it cannot be understood as an office or department. Legally, the nature and status of a branch office are different from that of the company's overseas offices and the functional departments within the company, such as the finance department.

A branch office does not have legal personality, and a subsidiary does have legal personality.

Therefore, we can think of a branch office as an office or executive department of the company.

The first thing that must be discussed is that a branch office does not have legal personality, while a subsidiary does have legal personality, so a branch office is not strictly a "company". Because the company in China's company law specifically refers to limited liability companies and joint-stock companies.

However, in real life, I remember that the name "company" can be used in the name of an unincorporated person or is not forbidden to appear in the name of an unincorporated person (see the judicial examination textbook of all countries), so a branch can call itself a company without a strong emphasis on legal personality.

At the same time, it is clear that according to the Several Opinions of the Supreme People's Court on Civil Litigation Issues, the branch is an independent subject of litigation. Therefore, although it is not a legal person, it is the subject of the lawsuit. However, it must be added that the civil liability of the branch is borne by the head office.

However, this does not mean that the branch does not have the capacity to bear civil liability, and if it has its own property and is sufficient to bear the corresponding liability, it is not necessary to drag the head office into a lawsuit.

The branch is not, it is just one of the offices or departments, the subsidiary is, teach you the easiest way to remember!

A subsidiary, think of the son as a separate legal person, i.e. indicating that it is a company in the legal sense. And the branch, everyone has been separated in half! What else! Hehe! So it is not a company within the meaning of corporate law.

No. A branch office does not have legal personality.

Cannot bear legal responsibility independently.