Screens the company by its registered name, then every owner and controller recorded at Companies House (people, UK companies, and foreign companies by name, walking up through UK holding companies up to five levels) against the same ten lists, and reads the result against the US rule that extends Entity List and Military End User List restrictions to companies those parties own 50% or more of, directly or indirectly, individually or together.

Companies House records holdings as bands, not exact figures, so the result says what the bands allow. More than 75% of the shares, or more than 50% but not more than 75%, is read as owning 50% or more. More than 25% but not more than 50% could be exactly 50%, so it is a possible 50% owner, never a certain one. Voting rights, the right to appoint directors or significant influence, with no share band, means the holder controls the company but owns 25% of the shares or less.

Ownership is followed as a chain: a company 50% or more owned by a listed party is itself covered, and so is a company it owns 50% or more of. ownership.level is one of listed_owner_50_percent, listed_owners_may_reach_50_percent, listed_party_in_ownership (any list, any holding, including control) or nothing_found. The 50% levels need a strong name match (0.85 or more); weaker possible matches are still listed per owner. Every match is a possible match by name, to be checked.

This covers ownership recorded at Companies House only: owners above a foreign company are not recorded there, and ownership.limits names each place the check could not see past. It is not a determination under the US rule.

Counts as one check, only when the ownership was read: an unknown company (404) or a Companies House failure (503) is not charged and never reads as "nothing found".

{
  "matches": [
    {
      "listLabel": "US Entity List (BIS)"
    }
  ],
  "ownership": {
    "owners": [
      {
        "holding": "owns 50% or more"
      }
    ]
  }
}