Since August 1, 2017, companies and groups of companies registered in the commercial register in France must make the declaration of the “Beneficial Owner” in a special register created by the ordinance-law of December 1, 2016, which aims to strengthen the French mechanism for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

According to the regulations, the beneficial owner is “the natural person or persons who directly or indirectly own more than 25% of the capital or voting rights of the company or exercise, by any other means, control over the management, administration or governing bodies of the company or the general shareholders’ meeting.” This definition implies that a company can have several beneficial owners.

The declaration must be submitted at the time of applying for registration of the company in the commercial register or, at the latest, within fifteen days from the date of receipt of the application for company formation. However, for all companies or groups of companies whose incorporation predates the entry into force of this regulation, the declaration must be submitted before April 1, 2018.

Within the framework of this declaration, the company must communicate the surnames, pseudonyms, names, date and place of birth, nationality, personal address and methods of control exercised by the beneficial owner(s).

Failure to file a declaration within the indicated deadlines or filing a declaration with incomplete or incorrect information is punishable by six months in prison and a fine of 7,500 euros for natural persons and 37,500 euros for legal entities.

Natural persons sanctioned also incur a sentence of prohibition from administering and partial deprivation of civic rights, while legal persons may be subject to dissolution, judicial supervision, temporary or permanent exclusion from public markets, temporary or permanent prohibition from making public offers of financial securities or the admission of securities to trading in regulated markets.