The interplay between corporate transparency and personal data protection: A new stage in the CJEU’s case law

Dr Samira Allioui, Centre d'études internationales et européennes, Université de Strasbourg Photo credit: Alexas Fotos, via Wikimedia Commons On 3 September 2026, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Court) delivered its judgment in Case C-798/24, Jautiva, addressing the compatibility of unrestricted public access to shareholder information with European Union (EU) company law and data protection rules. The CJEU ruled on the conflict between, on the one hand, the right to the protection of personal data and, on the other, national legal provisions—derived from European Union law—requiring the public disclosure of information regarding the shareholders of public limited companies. The Jautiva case addresses precisely where that boundary lies. This approach is not new; it follows on from the WM and Sovim judgment of 2022 (Joined Cases C‑37/20 and C‑601/20), in which the CJEU had already called into question public access to ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) registers and where…