European Union, online public access to the Luxembourg register of beneficial owners (RBO) was temporarily suspended.
On 16 December 2022, online access to the RBO was re-established for professionals subject to the amended law of 12 November 2004 on the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (“Professionals”), such as professionals from the financial and insurance sectors, auditors, real estate agents and developers, persons carrying out a family office activity, notaries and lawyers.
On 1 February 2023, the Luxembourg Business Register announced that all entities registered with the Luxembourg trade and companies register that have made an RBO declaration will be receiving a confidential code allowing them to access their own RBO data and order an RBO extract even though they do not qualify as Professionals.

Following the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 22 November 2022, access to the Luxembourg register of beneficial owners website via the internet has been temporarily suspended. This judgment, taken on a preliminary ruling from the Luxembourg District Court in a dispute between the beneficial owners of an entity registered in Luxembourg and the Luxembourg Business Register, underlines that access without distinction of user quality, although imposed by the text of Directive (EU) 2018/843 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing transposed into Luxembourg law, is contrary, in particular, to Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

Considering the cross-border component inherent to most Luxembourg transactions, dealmakers must carefully assess the risks of a merger control review even if the national merger thresholds are not met. To shed more certainty on the applicable procedure and timeline, the local M&A market may opt to insert detailed contractual remedies in the M&A documentation.

The law establishing a Register of Beneficial Owners for Luxembourg-registered entities came into force as of 1 March 2019. The beneficial ownership register is based on Article 30 of Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament (as amended), and has been established implementing the Directive’s aims to prevent money laundering…