EU Court of Justice decision to “invalidate” transparency in beneficial ownership is a blow to the right to know
In a landmark decision on 22 November 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the EU anti-money laundering directive’s provisions on access to beneficial ownership registers are “invalid”. The court found that the directive (AMLD5, 2018) interferes with the privacy and personal data protection rights of beneficial owners and should therefore not be made available to a wide public. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) denounced a decision restricting the freedom of information in favour of business interests. The European legislation was adopted in 2015 with the objective to combat money laundering and terrorist financing by…