In a judgment that few saw coming – and which many are now saying will have global repercussions for months to come – the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that public so-called 'beneficial owner registries, containing the details of those who own companies, financial accounts and other assets, are in breach of these owners' fundamental rights.

Twelve years after President Obama signed the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act into law – buried inside a domestic jobs bill known as the HIRE Act  – legal and political challenges targeting certain of its key provisions are continuing to progress, albeit slowly, in various "hot spots" around the world.

And yet, one more year on, and Washington lawmakers have still done nothing to mitigate the difficulties that U.S. expats struggle with, as a result of FATCA, in spite of these expats' increasingly-exasperated calls, as well as yet more calls for change on the part of the U.S. from growing numbers of foreign government officials, especially in Europe.   

Lawyers for a U.S.-born, UK resident woman who has become well-known in certain American expat circles for her ongoing challenge about the way the UK has allowed her personal financial data to be shared with the U.S. authorities, under FATCA –  today filed a claim on her behalf in the UK's High Court, arguing that the breaches of her data protection rights had caused her "personal damage and distress."

The news that London-based Coutts & Co. has joined the ranks of the world's 4,070-plus companies that have signed up to operate within the ethical and environmental boundaries set by the B Corp organization is significant in a number of ways: not the least of which is the fact that it's only the third bank operating in the UK, thus far, to have done so.

Mishcon de Reya, the London-based law firm that has been a hard-to-miss presence in European data protection matters over the past year, on Tuesday said it had filed "a lengthy GDPR complaint in two languages (English and French) with the Luxembourg National Data Protection Commission," as it sought to "bring together the concerns raised by the European data protection community and relevant European judgements."

 Luxembourg's courts are "understood" to have asked the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) a number of questions relating to the validity of public registers of beneficial ownership, according to the latest statement on the subject of personal data security concerns issued by the London-based Mishcon de Reya law firm.

A "Working Paper" issued by the European Council on Sept. 11, four days before the European Data Protection Board was due to meet to discuss how the EU should best prepare to participate in the worldwide move towards ever-greater automatic exchange of information, is being seen by some observers as an indication of the willingness of EU governments to take measures behind the scenes aimed at quietly ensuring a consistent pan-EU data protection message that also fits in with their "Realpolitik" objectives – including avoiding a public, political showdown with the U.S. over FATCA.

A report published on Wednesday that said an unknown number of Austrian citizens who lacked U.S. citizenship or residency had received U.S. coronavirus stimulus checks has drawn an immediate and unambiguous response from expats who have yet to receive their money, as well as from one of the most outspoken critics of the EU's existing data protection regime.

Lawyers and campaigners against the American tax evasion law known as FATCA say that last week's European Court of Justice (CJEU) ruling, which struck down the main mechanism used by the EU to protect the personal data of EU citizens when it's transferred to the U.S., represents a potential "game changer" – and could force Europe's courts to revisit the way FATCA compels Europe's banks and financial institutions to pass information on their U.S. citizen and Green Card-holding account-holders to the U.S. 

The historical origins of privacy law, in the context of EU human rights principles, and the disproportionate elements of America's FATCA legislation are among the topics discussed in the first-ever podcast interview of the U.S.-born FATCA challenger known only as "Jenny", along with her lawyer, Mishcon de Reya partner Filippo Noseda.