The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) sets aside unlimited public access to beneficial ownership information

In a landmark preliminary ruling published on 22 November 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) sets aside unlimited public access to beneficial ownership information – Access to the Luxembourg Register of Beneficial Ownership (RBE) is suspended until further notice.

Under the 5th Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Directive from 2018, EU Member States were under the obligation to make information on the beneficial ownership of legal entities accessible in all cases to “any member of the general public”.

This provision has now been declared invalid by the CJEU on the grounds that the general public’s access to such information constitutes an unjustified “serious interference with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data” enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.

The decision of the CJEU will undoubtedly reshape and restrict the access rules to beneficial ownership information across the EU and particularly in Luxembourg where the requests for a preliminary ruling on the issue originated.

As a consequence of the 5th AML Directive, Luxembourg had passed on 13 January 2019 the law establishing a Register of Beneficial Ownership which guaranteed access to the general public.

A number of individual cases had been brought before the District Court of Luxembourg to challenge the refusal of the RBE to grant an exemption from publicity to high-profile beneficial owners.

As a result, and upon their request, in 2020, the District Court of Luxembourg brought the issue of the disproportionate personal risks faced by those beneficial owners before the CJEU.

It is hence just the beginning of this story.