Opinion: Private Lives, Public Registers And The ECJ

Partners Wayne Atkinson and Ellie Crespi share their views on the Court of Justice of the European Union's (ECJ) judgment on public registers of beneficial ownership and the difference between secrecy and privacy.

On 22 November 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union released confirmation of its judgment in two conjoined cases related to the anti-money laundering directive ("AML Directive") and public registers of beneficial ownership. As the AML Directive required, a Luxembourg law adopted in 2019 established a Register of Beneficial Ownership with information thereon available to the general public. Whilst noting these requirements were aimed at the prevention of money-laundering and terrorist financing and that was a valid aim, the ECJ nevertheless held that in light of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union ('the Charter') the provision of the AML Directive requiring that the information on the beneficial ownership of entities