No longer be possible for the public to learn who owns a EU company

Re:No longer be possible for the public to learn who owns a ... by chrismeller on Friday December 02, 2022 @04:53PM (#33837439)

Fun fact, Estonia’s commercial register is still available and, as far as I can tell, never had anything to do with complying with EU regulation, but was completely internally legislated.

Similar to the US federal law vs. states, one not enforcing it anymore doesn’t necessarily mean that the rest won’t keep doing it.

https://ariregister.rik.ee/eng

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Re:No longer be possible for the public to learn who owns a ... by profstasiak on Friday December 02, 2022 @06:37PM (#33838460)

u discount the power of business lobby. Also a lot of EU regulations have to be internally legislated.

Anyway I find it weird anyone can see how much profit my company had last year

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Re:No longer be possible for the public to learn who owns a ... by chrisandchris on Saturday December 03, 2022 @03:01AM (#33841665)

Quedtion: What exactly is public in EU/Estonia? E.g. in Switzerland, one can see share holders of limited companies (GmbH) but not for Aktiengesellschaft (public companies).

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Re:No longer be possible for the public to learn who owns a ... by chrismeller on Saturday December 03, 2022 @05:36PM (#33848185)

In Estonia I believe anyone who holds more than 10% of shares has to be listed for a public company while private has to list everyone.

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Re:No longer be possible for the public to learn who owns a ... by MichaelZuo on Saturday December 03, 2022 @01:15PM (#33845798)

Doesn't seem like it?

I tried searching up some examples of subsidiaries of larger companies and the 'Beneficial Owners' section doesn't actually contain who ultimately owns the company.

For example Toyota in Estonia:

Toyota Baltic Aktsiaselts (10234087) https://ariregister.rik.ee/eng/company/10234087?active_tab=r...

Has 1 board member listed.

SIA Toyota Material Handling Baltic Eesti filiaal (11629379) https://ariregister.rik.ee/eng/company/11629379/SIA-Toyota-M...

Has no one listed at all, which would be illegal?, if the law mandates it.

Eesti Toyota Ühing (80226178) https://ariregister.rik.ee/eng/company/80226178/Eesti-Toyota...

Has 3 board members listed.

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Re:No longer be possible for the public to learn who owns a ... by chrismeller on Saturday December 03, 2022 @05:35PM (#33848173)

Toyota Baltic has a shareholder and beneficial owner listed, which seems to be compliant.

SIA Toyota Material Handling is the registration of a foreign company (Latvia), and says beneficial owner information isn’t required, presumably because it’s up to their home country to get that data.

Eesti Toyota lists their board members as beneficial owners. If you note their areas of activity it’s “Associations and social clubs related to recreational activities, entertainment, cultural activities or hobbies”, so I’d say not actually related to Toyota like you thought.

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Re:No longer be possible for the public to learn who owns a ... by MichaelZuo on Saturday December 03, 2022 @09:43PM (#33850031)

Huh the last linked company does appear to be purely recreational. Though of course it's still not ultimately owned by just those three, unless Estonian 'Associations and social clubs' are very different from what I understand.

I'm surprised Toyota HQ would let them use their name on official documents if it's completely unrelated.

For Toyota Baltic, obviously the sole listed board member is not the 'Ultimate Beneficial Owner' or even any 'Beneficial Owner' since Toyota Baltic is a legally controlled subsidiary of a much much larger company.

Which the board member does not own, nor are they likely to be the sole beneficial owner of any intermediate holding company.

The 'Beneficial Owner' is very very likely just a legal representative.

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