Public Access To Beneficial Owner Information: Validated By The Advocate General!

Transposing Article 30 of Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2015 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering or terrorist financing, as amended by Directive (EU) 2018/843 of 30 May 2018, the Law of 13 January 2019 (the “RBE Law”) established under Luxembourg law an ultimate beneficial owner register (the “RBE”) and provides that all entities registered with the Luxembourg trade registry (Registre de Commerce et des Sociétés, Luxembourg) must identify their beneficial owners, thus rendering public a certain amount of their personal information.

By default accessible to all, the RBE Law provides that the access to such personal information may, in “exceptional circumstances” and by reasoned request of the entities or beneficial owners, be limited solely to national authorities.