ECJ Rules That Information Held On Beneficial Ownership Registers Should Not Be Publicly Accessible

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has this morning handed down a landmark judgment in which it has ruled that the EU's Fourth AML Directive (EU2015/849) whereby Member States must ensure that the information held on beneficial ownership registers is accessible to any member of the general public is INVALID as being a breach of Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

In particular, the ECJ found that the general public's access to information on beneficial ownership constitutes a serious interference with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data, as it allows a potentially unlimited number of persons to find out about the material and financial situation of a beneficial owner.