Catherine Nommick, Partner at Bremens Avocats

Since July 31, 2024, public access to the Register of Ultimate Beneficial Owners (RUBO) is now limited to those having a legitimate interest.

Created in April 2021, this register enabled all citizens to easily find out the identity of the ultimate owners of French companies.

This restriction of access follows the invalidation by the Court of Justice of the European Union, on November 22, 2022, of public access to Ultimate Beneficial Owner information, for violation of the right to privacy and the right to protect personal data. EU Directive 2024/1640 of May 31, 2024 – the so-called “6th Anti-Money Laundering Directive- then restricted the conditions of access to this information.

The only persons who may now have access to the RUBO are as follow:

– The professionals and authorities referred to in Article L. 561-2 of the French Monetary and Financial Code. These include credit institutions and their branches, payment and credit institutions, insurance companies, the Banque de France and investment firms.

– Companies wishing to access information on their own Ultimate Beneficial Owners, as well as those demonstrating an interest in accessing the GDPR of their co-contractors, with a view to fulfil their compliance and know-your-customer obligations;

– Journalists, researchers and civil society players committed to financial transparency.

Requests for access to the RUBO must be submitted via the infogreffe platform, which will assess the legitimate interest of each category of person.

This new procedure aims to strike a balance between respect for privacy and business transparency.