On 3 September 2026 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) published its decision in case C-798/24 (Jautiva) [*] on disclosure of shareholders information.

From the press release in English (footnotes excluded):

EU law does not require the disclosure of information relating to all shareholders of public limited liability companies, including minority shareholders

Furthermore, EU law precludes the online disclosure of personal data relating to such shareholders where access to those data is not subject to any conditions, such as demonstrating a legitimate interest, even if such disclosure pursues an objective of general interest recognised by the European Union

A constitutional complaint has been brought before the Constitutional Court of Latvia by 17 minority shareholders of a public limited liability company who are challenging the compatibility with the right to respect for privacy and the protection of personal data, guaranteed by the Latvian Constitution, of a provision of national law requiring that information relating to the shareholders of public limited liability companies be made available to the public.

Where such a shareholder is a natural person, that information is to include the surname, first name, personal identification number or, in the absence of such a number, the date of birth, the number and date of issue of an identity document, the country and issuing authority, and the address at which the shareholder can be contacted. In addition, and regardless of whether the shareholder is a natural person, that information is also to include the shareholder’s email address, the class, number and nominal value of the shares held by that shareholder, and the number of votes attaching to the shares. That information is to be accessible online and may be downloaded in bulk, including by any unidentified user.

The applicants contend that the Latvian legislature has failed to justify the need to disclose that information to the public, pointing to a high risk of it being used for dishonest purposes. Moreover, once disclosed, it is not possible to place any restrictions on its subsequent use.

Read for more information the full press release and the decision.

Note:

[*] Press releases: ES, DE, EN, FR, IT, LV, PL, PT.