Who will have access to the UBO register?

Public register

As part of the fight against crime, the European legislator obliged all EU member states in 2018 to make 'registers of beneficial owners', UBO registers, publicly accessible, which the Netherlands also complied with. However, in 2022, the European Court of Justice ruled that such public access violates the fundamental rights of ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs) and that access is only allowed on the basis of "legitimate interest". The Netherlands then had to close the UBO register to access by anyone other than public authorities and was required to amend the rules on access to the UBO register. In 2024, the bill was introduced to start regulating access to the UBO register properly, taking into account the fundamental rights of all registered persons.

Risks for citizens

In September last year, Privacy First sent a detailed letter to the House of Representatives on access to personal data in the UBO register (read the news report and the letter). Among other things, it urged that the rules on access should not be broadened in such a way that the registry de facto would become publicly available. This would prevent malicious parties from obtaining and misusing the personal data of UBOs. During consideration of the bill, that risk received considerable attention and members of the House of Representatives called attention to the fact that the proposal to give journalists and non-profit organisations, among others, access on the basis of "legitimate interest" for three years could pose abuse risks as these are unregulated activities. The finance minister replied that the rules on access will be regulated by an order in council (AMvB). The minister's reason for this is that the Dutch legislator is not in charge of this, as access rules are governed by the new European Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD6) and will be further developed by the European Commission in cooperation with the new European Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA). The minister did undertake to conduct internet consultations on proposals for the AMvB and to discuss the matter with the House of Representatives.

Adapted bill

On 18 February, the bill on access to the UBO register passed the House of Representatives with some amendments. There is a amendment assuming that the draft AMvB or its amendment is submitted to parliament prior to adoption. In a second amendment included that if a private party is granted access on the basis of legitimate interest, the UBO will be informed by the Chamber of Commerce about the access and the purpose of such access. In a third amendment adopted arranged for the finance minister to inform parliament about "the effectiveness and effects of this law in practice" within two years of the new rules coming into force.

Alertness is called for

It is positive that the Lower House has paid attention to preventing abuse of UBOs' personal data and that the topic will return to the agenda. That said, Privacy First believes that the European access rules should be looked at extremely critically.

The 2022 European court ruling made it clear that European legislators sometimes adopt rules that violate citizens' fundamental rights. This may be the case again with the new crime-fighting rules, such as the AMLD6 mentioned above. Alertness is therefore called for.

Privacy First will therefore continue to monitor this issue critically, in line with our previous lawsuit On the UBO register.

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