In the absence of a response from the French National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) to its request to repeal the conditions for access to Beneficial Ownership Registers, from the 29th of January 2026, Sherpa has referred the matter to the French Council of State.
These registers make it possible to identify the people who actually control a company or derive economic benefits from it. They are an essential tool for investigating corruption, money laundering, tax fraud and other forms of crime.
Following a 2023 ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union, France has adopted restrictive rules on access to registers, on the grounds of privacy. This prevents democratic watchdogs, such as journalists, researchers and civil society organisations, from accessing data that is essential to research into financial transparency.
The access conditions imposed by INPI restrict access to a select group of stakeholders who can demonstrate an interest in, or prior expertise regarding, financial transparency. This approach is paradoxical: it requires journalists, researchers and organisations to have already worked on these issues in order to access the very information that enables them to carry out such investigations.
In practice, these restrictions limit the ability of civil society and the media to expose cases of corruption, money laundering or tax evasion, and reduce democratic oversight of those who actually control companies.
Wide and regulated access to Beneficial Ownership Registers is imperative in investigating, raising the alarm about and exposing opaque financial arrangements that undermine the public interest. Knowing who the real holders of economic power are is essential for combating corruption.
When the European Union introduced the public Beneficial Ownership Registers in 2015, the aim was to combat money laundering. Today, restrictions on access in France deprive the ‘watchdogs of democracy’ – public interest organisations, journalists and researchers – of essential information: the identity of the people who actually benefit from companies. This lack of transparency makes it impossible to understand what interests are at play behind certain economic or political decisions.
In the absence of a response from INPI to our request, Sherpa has lodged an appeal with the Council of State in France on the grounds of misuse of power, arguing that this restricted access infringes the right to freedom of investigation and information. We once again call on the public authorities to ensure that the Beneficial Ownership Registers remain open, in the interests of transparency in economic and public life.
