Who actually owns the company? The answer no longer available to everyone
Until recently, it took just a few clicks for anyone to find out, free of charge and without registration, who ultimately stood behind any Czech company. That era ended on 17 December 2025 when the register of beneficial owners was made inaccessible to the public following Czech court rulings. The register has thus found itself in a legal vacuum. This is to be addressed by a forthcoming amendment, approved by the government on 22 June 2026, which also transposes the new EU anti-money laundering rules.
From a public register to a non-public one
The amendment has established that the register will be non-public. In future, the public will only be able to verify whether a beneficial owner is registered for a given legal entity and to view a narrow set of data, in particular data whose publication has been approved by the beneficial owner or data automatically transferred from a public register. Public authorities and obliged entities (such as banks and notaries) will retain access to the data via remote access for the purposes of fulfilling AML obligations. Others will be able to access specific data only if they demonstrate a legitimate interest to the Ministry of Justice, i.e. prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing. For selected groups, legitimate interest will be presumed by default (for example, journalists, non-profit organisations and academics active in this area, persons entering into a business relationship, contracting authorities and subsidy providers). Access based on legitimate interest is to be granted for three years, with applicants generally being given access only to current data.
At the same time, the amendment strengthens the position of beneficial owners: they will be informed who has accessed their record, and in justified cases (for minors and, newly, also where there is a risk that the beneficial owner may become a victim of a criminal offence) it will be possible to make the data completely inaccessible.
Sanctions are back, together with a new obligation
Although the Czech court rulings temporarily prevented proceedings on discrepancies from being initiated and sanctions from being imposed, this obstacle disappeared when the register was made inaccessible in December 2025 – independently of the amendment. Registration courts may therefore once again deal with discrepancies in the register of beneficial owners, enforce registration obligations or sanction legal entities up to CZK 500,000 for missing entries or inconsistencies in the register of beneficial owners.
At the same time, private-law sanctions will also apply, such as a ban on the distribution of profit shares or liquidation balances, or the suspension of voting rights, and the amendment clarifies the application of private-law consequences. Two situations need to be distinguished. If the beneficial owner of a business corporation is not registered, a profit share (or liquidation balance) cannot be paid to that person or to a shareholder of whom that person is also the beneficial owner, nor may that person exercise voting rights. Under the new rules, this will apply only to shareholders holding at least five per cent of the registered capital, and such shareholder must submit to the corporation an extract from the register no older than three months. However, if the beneficial owner is a person determined based on their position in top management (a “substitute” beneficial owner), the sanctions will not apply. A different situation arises where a shareholder has no beneficial owner registered at all, which can be verified from the public part of the register. In that case, no profit distribution may be paid and no voting allowed, regardless of the size of the shareholding.
What needs to be addressed
At this point, it is advisable to verify whether the registration reflects the actual ownership and management structure and to correct any discrepancies. An incorrect or missing registration continues to jeopardise a company’s participation in public tenders and access to subsidies and complicates banking and transaction due diligence. Once the amendment takes effect, shareholders will also need to obtain an up-to-date extract from the register before profit shares are distributed and before a general meeting is held.
When the amendment will take effect
The amendment is now heading to the chamber of deputies and is expected to take effect on 1 January 2027. It may still change during the legislative process. However, given that it transposes an EU directive into Czech law, no major changes are expected to its key requirements – in particular the requirement to demonstrate a legitimate interest as a condition for access to the register, or the safeguards for beneficial owners who are at risk or are minors.