The Department of Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property has announced on 28 November 2022 that the access to the Register of Beneficial Owners for the general public is suspended. This decision is based on the Judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEE) in joined cases C-37/20 and C-601/20, of 22 November 2022.
According to the above-mentioned Judgement of the CJEE, Article 1, point 15(c) of Directive (EU) 2018/843 of the European Parliament and the Council, of 30th May 2018, which provides for access to the information on the beneficial ownership of legal entities to any member of the general public, is invalid as it constitutes a serious interference with the fundamental rights of respect for private life and to the protection of personal data, enshrined in Articles 7 and 8 respectively, of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
The relevant information to the competent and supervisory authorities will continue to be provided with the applicable procedure.
The relevant information will, also continue to be provided to the obliged entities, with the applicable procedure by submitting additionally a solemn declaration confirming that the information on the Beneficial Owners is requested within the context of performing customer due diligence.
It should be noted that the obligation of companies and partnerships to submit and update their Beneficial Owners information is not affected and remains valid.