{"id":5077,"date":"2022-12-27T13:28:35","date_gmt":"2022-12-27T13:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/?p=5077"},"modified":"2022-12-27T13:28:35","modified_gmt":"2022-12-27T13:28:35","slug":"ecj-ruling-on-ubo-registers-victory-common-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2022\/12\/27\/ecj-ruling-on-ubo-registers-victory-common-sense\/","title":{"rendered":"OPINION | ECJ ruling on UBO registers &#8216;victory for common sense&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5 font-pratt\"><i>Martin Kenney is managing partner of Martin Kenney &amp; Co., an investigative litigation practice based in the British Virgin Islands, specializing in global asset recovery.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5 font-pratt\">Across Europe, countries have been switching off public access to what are known as beneficial ownership registers, in response to a ruling from the continent\u2019s top court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ).<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5 font-pratt\">It\u2019s a move that transparency campaigners <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transparency.org\/en\/press\/eu-court-of-justice-delivers-blow-to-beneficial-ownership-transparency\">are decrying<\/a>, but which, after a 30-year background in battling economic criminals, I believe is a victory for common sense and the right to privacy. Other jurisdictions should take heed of the decision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5 font-pratt\">Since 2018, a patchwork of systems, which we refer to as ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) registers, have been operating across the European Union. These registers list the names of people who ultimately own a company, and through that, the assets that that company controls. But on Nov. 22, the ECJ ruled that a provision of the EU\u2019s anti-money laundering directive, which requires EU member states to maintain such registers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.ie\/business\/eu-court-throws-access-to-anti-money-laundering-data-in-doubt-42164301.html\">was invalid<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2022\/12\/27\/ecj-ruling-on-ubo-registers-victory-common-sense\/imbcxrqq3fdddmeq3zn7jhqute-jpg\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5080\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5080 size-medium alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMBCXRQQ3FDDDMEQ3ZN7JHQUTE.jpg-300x200.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMBCXRQQ3FDDDMEQ3ZN7JHQUTE.jpg-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMBCXRQQ3FDDDMEQ3ZN7JHQUTE.jpg-1024x683.webp 1024w, https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMBCXRQQ3FDDDMEQ3ZN7JHQUTE.jpg-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMBCXRQQ3FDDDMEQ3ZN7JHQUTE.jpg-600x400.webp 600w, https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMBCXRQQ3FDDDMEQ3ZN7JHQUTE.jpg.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/business\/commentary\/article-businesses-deserve-privacy-too-the-case-against-public-registers-for\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more at Report on Business (<em>The Globe and Mail<\/em>)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Martin Kenney welcomes a decision by the European Court of Justice that open beneficial ownership registers \u2013\u00a0sometimes called open UBO registers \u2013 are incompatible with the right to privacy. Unlimited transparency isn&#8217;t necessarily effective in the battle against economic criminals, he warns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[336,342,249,69],"class_list":["post-5077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-ecj","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-transparency","tag-ubo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>OPINION | ECJ ruling on UBO registers &#039;victory for common sense&#039; - MKS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Unlimited transparency isn&#039;t necessarily effective in the battle against economic criminals, Martin Kenney warns.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"OPINION | ECJ ruling on UBO registers &#039;victory for common sense&#039; - 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