Iberia claims it is part of a department store to avoid Brexit shutdown

Re:Iberia claims it is part of a department store to avoid B... by JumpCrisscross on Thursday January 03, 2019 @11:53AM (#18816575)

> Whilst 100% of the ‘economic rights’ to Iberia’s revenue and profitability are owned by IAG, it turns out that 50.01% of Iberia’s ‘political rights’ are owned by the El Corte Ingles department store chain.

Does the EU have a legal concept akin to beneficial ownership [1] or control? Iberia seems to claim it is economically owned by IAG but that El Corte Ingles has a majority of its voting rights.

At face, that would seem to solve the EU’s issue with a no -EU owner. Whether ECI can veto anything IAG wants to do is the real question.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beneficial_ownership

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Re:Iberia claims it is part of a department store to avoid B... by jrudolph on Thursday January 03, 2019 @12:04PM (#18816693)

Yes, and it's used all over the place in EU corporate law. In most cases I've seen it applied (as a EU-based founder) to money laundering, taxation etc.

I'd be curious to see how this construction pans out. I bet it's been a good deal for the lawyers involved. They surely got paid well for figuring this out initially and will get paid again for testing it in the courts. So much for growing future revenue potential.

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