Recent Developments On Beneficial Ownership Registers – When Transparency Clashes With Fundamental Rights

The European Union has adopted various anti-money laundering directives in recent years, with the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive requiring member states to implement central registers of beneficial owners of companies and the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, requiring each EU member state to make the information stored on its central register publicly accessible.

In consequence of these directives, a number of countries including Luxembourg have since 2019 maintained a register of beneficial ownership with unrestricted public access. However, actions were brought in Luxembourg on the basis that this level of unlimited access to personal information endangered the privacy of the respective beneficial owners and the case was referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union.