ACCESSING COMPANY REGISTERS
USING THE RIGHT TO KNOW
ONLY 1 OUT OF 32 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES ALLOWS FREE, PUBLIC
ACCESS TO ITS ENTIRE COMPANY REGISTER
0
countries were sent requests for a copy of the entire company register database
0
countries refused access to their company register database in its entirety
0
countries charge money for access to the company registers database
0
countries give free, public access to the entire company registers database
European governments, by putting these obstacles to accessing company register data, are complicit in blocking investigative journalists in their work uncovering criminal activities, money laundering, and tax evasion.
Recommendations
- Company registers in Europe should be fully accessible to the public, free of charge and in open data formats.
- The right of access to information should apply in full to the bodies holding company registers and to the registers themselves.
- Registers should enable and facilitate searches for company information record-by-record, for free.
- Registers should include and make available to the public information on the beneficiary owners of companies.
- Privacy policies should always be applied consistently and it should not be possible to override supposed privacy considerations by simply paying for the information.
Experts’ views
Why is it important for the public to have full, free access to company registers?
Users perspective on access to company registers:
The Findings
The map below summarises the results of the request process, which took almost two years to complete.
To find out more about what happened in each country, click on the map or use the country-by-country list below:Map Key
In red…Refused access to info
In orange…Process still ongoing
In green…Gave full access to info
In blue…Administrative silence
In red…Refused access to info
In orange…Process still ongoing
In green…Gave full access to info
In blue…Administrative silence