European court rules against EU on Public Registers of Beneficial Ownership
The Justices ruled that the provision whereby the information on the beneficial ownership of companies incorporated within the territory of member states is accessible in all cases to any member of the general public, is invalid.
Privacy rights & personal data protection
The court ruled that registers containing the personal details of the owners of a company and accessible to the general public is an infringement of fundamental rights of privacy and personal data protection.
The [British] Virgin Islands has said it has no issues with making beneficial ownership registers public once it becomes a global standard.
VI marched against Public Registers
It was on Monday, May 21, 2018, when the House of Lords let stand an amendment made by the House of Commons to the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill demanding that only Overseas Territories located in the Caribbean have registers of beneficial ownership.
No one else in the world or countries in the offshore sector, not even the UK or their Dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man, have to comply with such rules.
This resulted in a major public demonstration in the Virgin Islands on March 24, 2018, known as Decision March 2018.
BOSS
The Virgin Islands was quick to launch a new innovative technology platform called BOSS (Beneficial Ownership Secure Search System) to share VI company information and beneficial ownership data with UK law enforcement within 24 hours.
BOSS is being pushed as the alternative to public registers as it meets all international standards as defined by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and provides the appropriate balance between privacy and transparency; however, it remains to be seen if the UK and EU will recognise the system and discontinue trying to enforce the harmful policy of public registers.
Nevertheless, The VI in 2020 had said it would make ownerships registers public in 2023, provided this was a global standard by then. The EU ruling may have thrown that commitment, including by the other OTs, in doubt.
Central Registers vs Public Registers
It should be noted that even as the EU was facing constitutional challenges regarding Public Registers, the UK was still pressing for the VI and other OTs to implement the controversial policy.
It should be noted that the United States, which has baked the UK to enforce public registers on its OTs, uses Central Registers as opposed to Public Registers.
In late 2020, the US government passed the National Defence Authorisation Act which included important corporate transparency reforms. As a result of this Act, the majority of companies, about 87% in the US, will have to disclose their beneficial owners to the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), although this will not be made public.
See link to access statement by EU Court of Justice on Public Registers
https://rgb-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/STxdLhx77NsjYNrSqCk8Oae00Rc.pdf
.png)
Follow Us On
10 Responses to “European court rules against EU on Public Registers of Beneficial Ownership”
1. '...an infringement of fundamental rights of privacy and personal data protection...';
2. 'No one else in the world or countries in the offshore sector, not even the UK or their Dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man, have to comply with such rules'.
Not even the Uk have the register, but we were being forced to have it.
The Court shamed all of them.