Register of beneficial owners: public access invalidated

On 22 November 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") delivered a judgment in which it has decided that the public access regime to information on beneficial owners ("BO"), provided for in AMLD V¹ is invalid.

In particular, the CJEU considers that the public access to such information constitutes a serious breach of the fundamental rights to privacy and the protection of personal data (as provided for in Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union), because it is neither limited to what is strictly necessary nor proportionate to the objective pursued by AMLD V.

In the first days following the judgment, access to the RBO was suspended but it was restored on 6 December 2022 for a number of professionals who already had identified access to the RCS and the RBO.

According to the Press Release published by the Luxembourg Government on 6 December 2022, access will also be open to representatives of the press who have a legitimate interest in consulting the RBO in the context of their journalistic research. Access for national journalists will be managed by the Luxembourg Press Council under an agreement with the Luxembourg Business Registers. Access will be restored, in principle, within the same period for professionals, as defined in the 2004 Law on the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. Finally, access will also be restored at a later stage for other actors with a legitimate interest and a link to the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. This point echoes the judgment which leaves open the possibility to define further which persons or entities can demonstrate a legitimate interest in accessing BO data.

Discussions are also being held at European level to bring the text of the anti-money laundering Directive into line with the case law of the CJEU.

On this subject, see also here.