Register of Beneficial Owners Suspended For The General Public

The Department of the Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property announced on the 28/11/2022, that based on the relevant Decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), dated 22/11/2022, in the co-litigation cases C-37/20 and C-601/20, access to the Register of Beneficial Owners for the general public is suspended from 23/11/2022.

In accordance with the above Decision of the CJEU, article 1, section 15, sub-section c of Directive (EU) 2018/843 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of May 30, 2018, which provides access to the general public to information about the Beneficial Ownership of a legal entity, is invalid as it constitutes a serious interference with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and protection of personal data, which are respectively guaranteed in Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

The relevant information to the competent and supervisory authorities and the Unit, as referred to in the Directive R.A.A. 112/2021 article 12 and in the amending Directive R.A.A. 116/2022 will continue to be provided with the current procedure.

The relevant information to the obliged entities will be provided with the applicable procedure by additionally providing a Responsible Declaration to confirm that the details of the Beneficial Owners are requested in the context of taking due diligence measures.

Despite the above, the obligation of companies and partnerships to submit and update the data of Beneficial Owners is not affected and still remains mandatory.