Update of EU guidance on July 3rd, 2024 results in a MAJOR CHANGE in how the EU determines ownership regarding sanctioned persons!
July 3rd, 2024 the EU published an "Update of the EU Best Practices for the effective implementation of restrictive measures".
As of July 3rd, 2024 the EU has changed the general way in which the ownership is determined, aligning it to the US implementation, 50% or more and aggregation! This in contradiction to the UK, which still uses more than 50% and no (automatic) aggregation.
The official EU guidance now reads:
63. The criterion to be taken into account when assessing whether a legal person or entity is owned by another person or entity is the possession of 50% or more of the proprietary rights of an entity or having majority interest in it. If this criterion is satisfied, it is considered that the legal person or entity is owned by another person or entity. When assessing ownership, the aggregated ownership of the entity should , also be taken into account. For example, if one designated person owns 30% of the entity and another designated persons owns 25% of the entity, the entity should, in principle, be considered as owned by designated persons.
In the past, before July 3rd 2024, ownership was defined within the EU (ST-10572-2022-INIT) as:
62. The criterion to be taken into account when assessing whether a legal person or entity is owned by another person or entity is the possession of more than 50% of the proprietary rights of an entity or having majority interest in it. If this criterion is satisfied, it is considered that the legal person or entity is owned by another person or entity.
We have not informed you of this earlier, as we found it strange that such an impact would be achieved by publication of a 'mere' Guidance!
Now you have been informed!