The Beneficial Owners The Decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) – The Grand Chamber
Since 2020, the Republic of Albania has entered into force law no. 112/2020 “On the Register of Beneficial Owners”, which has undergone a rapid change also with Law no. 6/2022 “On some changes and additions to the law no. 112/2020, “On the register of beneficial owners”.
Considering that, this national law is partially aligned with Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament and the Council, dated 20 May 2015, “On the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing”, it takes value and importance the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of E.U on the regulatory aspects of the Directive cited above.
Recently, through the pre-trial pronouncement mechanism, according to the provision of Article 267 of the Treaty on the functioning of the E.U., the tribunal d’arrondissement de Luxembourg has presented to the Court of Justice two requests for interpretation of this Court regarding the rejection of the request made by the beneficial owner to the public authority that administers the data of the beneficial owners in Luxembourg, to prohibit the public access on the information of the beneficial owners.
The Court of Justice, after considering the institutes of the public access to beneficial owner information – Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in E.U. that protects fundamental rights such as respect for private and family life, protection of personal data, with the decision of its Grand Chamber, dated 22.11.2022, has decided that Article 1, point 15, letter c) of Directive (EU) 2018/ 843 of the European Parliament and the Council is invalid in the part where it is predicted that the member states take measures so that the data and information on the beneficial owners are accessible in any case by the public.
With this decision of the Court of Justice, the intervention of the public authorities of the member states is limited and balanced in its intervention in the aspects of private and family life, in the provisions of the protection of personal data.
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