On 22 November 2022, the Court of Justice delivered its judgment in joined cases WM (C-37/20) and Sovim SA (C-601/20) versus Luxembourg Business Registers and invalidated the requirement introduced by Directive 2018/843 amending Directive 2015/849 that Member States must make information on the beneficial ownership of legal persons held in central Registers accessible in all cases to any member of the general public. The Court considered that such indiscriminate public access was neither strictly necessary to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, nor proportionate and could therefore not justify a serious interference with fundamental rights, namely the right to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data enshrined in Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter.
As a consequence of this judgment, the beneficial ownership registers interconnection system (BORIS) currently cannot provide public access to the information held in the national beneficial ownership registers. While the Commission will continue to work on the implementation of access for competent authorities and obliged entities, the legal and technical possibilities for implementing public access based on legitimate interest will also be assessed. In the meantime, the national beneficial ownership registers can be accessed directly through the links provided here.
Link to the Court press release
Link to the Court case
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