Latvijas Republikas Saeima – CJEU Judgment (European Union, 2026)

Seventeen natural persons, who were minority shareholders of a public limited liability company, brought proceedings before the Satversmes tiesa (the Constitutional Court of Latvia). They challenged national legislation requiring information on shareholders to be included in the public companies register. The information made publicly available included shareholders’ identity and contact details, as well as information concerning the class, number and nominal value of their shares and the number of votes attached to them. The information could be accessed online and downloaded in bulk by any person without identification or the need to demonstrate a legitimate interest. The data subjects argued that such disclosure constituted an unjustified and disproportionate interference with their rights, particularly because they were neither beneficial owners nor members of the company’s management bodies and did not exercise control over the company. The national legislation pursued several objectives, including ensuring transparency and protecting third parties, combating money laundering and terrorist financing, and facilitating the implementation of sanctions. The Constitutional Court stated the proceedings and referred questions to the CJEU. In particular, whether [https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2017/1132/oj/eng Directive 2017/1132] required such disclosure and whether Articles 5 and 6 GDPR permitted national legislation providing unrestricted public access to that personal data. Directive 2017/1132 The Court first held that [https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2017/1132/oj/eng Article 14(d) Directive 2017/1132] does not require the disclosure of information relating to all shareholders, including minority shareholders. Shareholders do not, merely by holding shares, participate in the administration, supervision or control of a company within the meaning of that provision. In particular, minority shareholders are generally not authorised to represent or bind the compa