CJEU rules on invalidity of rule allowing public access to BO Register information

The CJEU has ruled in joined cases C-37/20 & C-601/20 WM and Sovim SA v Luxembourg Business Registers that the amendment to the AML Directive (Directive 2015/849 as amended by Directive 2018/843) pursuant to which Member States must ensure that Beneficial Ownership information is made accessible to the members of the general public is invalid on the basis of serious interference with an individual’s right to respect for his or her private and family life, home and communications, and the right to the protection of personal data concerning him or her, enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Human Rights.

The CJEU noted that, although it is stated in recital 30 of Directive 2018/843 that the general public’s access to information on beneficial ownership ‘can contribute’ to combating the misuse of corporate and other legal entities and that it ‘would also help’ criminal investigations, such considerations are not such as to demonstrate that that measure is strictly necessary to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. The CJEU thus recognised that the amendments to Directive 2015/849 introduced by Directive 2018/843, which provided for the general public’s access to information on beneficial ownership, amounts to a serious interference with the fundamental rights guaranteed in Articles 7 and 8 of the Human Rights Charter, and without that increased interference being capable of being offset by any benefits in terms of combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

The CJEU thus concluded on the invalidity of Article 1(15)(c) of Directive 2018/843 in so far as it amended Article 30(5)(c) of Directive 2015/849 to require Member States to ensure that information on the beneficial ownership of companies and of other legal entities incorporated within their territory is accessible in all cases to any member of the general public.