EU Court of Justice deals 'death blow' to beneficial owner public registers 

In a landmark judgment, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has held that registers containing the personal details of ‘beneficial owners‘ of companies and accessible to the public at large infringe fundamental rights.   The court said in a statement yesterday (22 November) "the provision of the anti-money-laundering directive whereby Member States must ensure that the information on the beneficial ownership of corporate and other legal entities incorporated within their territory is accessible in all cases to any member of the general public is invalid. "According to th...