CJEU Judgment In The Jautiva Case

In that case, Latvian law provided for public access to information concerning all shareholders of a public limited liability company, including minority shareholders, for the purposes of preventing money laundering, terrorist financing, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as well as implementing international and EU sanctions.

The legitimacy of those objectives is not, however, called into question.

In its analysis, the Court criticises the national legislation at issue for failing to provide sufficient safeguards to ensure the protection of shareholders’ personal data, as guaranteed by Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

Consistent with its proportionality review, the Court considers that those objectives can be achieved through measures that are less restrictive of fundamental rights. In this regard, it notes that the AML/CFT and counter-proliferation frameworks already require competent authorities and obliged entities to