Identifying who controls a company, without naming a natural person

This is the topic where the honest answer depends entirely on the country, and where many services keep things vague. In Europe, public beneficial-ownership registers were closed by the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2022, and on 3 September 2026 (C-798/24) the Court ruled that even shareholder data published online without any access condition breaches the GDPR. Since 19 September 2026 Sirenic therefore names no natural person holding or controlling a company: legal entities are named, natural persons are counted. What remains available varies from state to state, and must be stated state by state.

See a real response (free) Get the quote for /v1/eu/entreprise/GB/{company_number}/beneficiaires-effectifs

Country by country, without rounding

For France, Sirenic exposes no beneficial-ownership register: it has not been publicly accessible since the 2022 ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union. What we serve is ownership as it appears in publicly filed deeds (articles of association), with a confidence level and the source document reference. That is not a beneficial-ownership register and does not replace one.

The French route: filed deeds, with their limits

/v1/entreprise/{siren}/capital reads the latest publicly filed deed and extracts share capital, legal form, shareholders (corporate holders named with role and percentage, natural persons counted with their percentage [associes_personnes_physiques, detenu_par_personnes_physiques_pct]) and notable clauses, with a confidence level and the source document reference.

A proof guard frames that extraction: a clause is served only if its keyword actually appears in the document's text. That guard is not theoretical: it was added after a non-existent pre-emption clause was produced for a real company.

Filed articles can be old and reflect only what was published: an unpublished share transfer does not appear. The extraction is cached; when it counts natural-person shareholders, it is deleted after 90 days or as soon as newer articles are filed, then redone on request. Read it as a dated exhibit, never as the current shareholding.

How we handle individuals

• No natural person owning or controlling a company has been named since 19 September 2026: they are counted, and the response says so.
• Natural persons named in responses, and what is served about them: officers of French companies (name, first names, role and year of birth); French sole traders under full diffusion, on the French company profile and search, under the Sirene register's diffusion regime (name, first name, establishment address, SIREN number of their business, SIRET number of their establishment and EU VAT number of their business), the establishment address possibly being their home, and refused with 400, not charged, on scores, health summaries and know-your-customer files; French officers searched by name or gathered in a network of offices (name, first names, role, year of birth and other offices); persons on a sanctions list whose name matches the name searched (name, aliases, year of birth, nationalities, sanctions regime, listing date and measures); persons on the AMF blacklists whose name matches the name searched (name, category and listing date); active UK officers (name, role, appointment date, nationality, occupation, country of residence and year of birth); UK insolvency practitioners (name, role and dates of office); Latvian officers (name, role, body, year of birth, representation rights, register entry date and register update date); Danish officers (name, body, role, term dates and how elected); Norwegian officers (first names, name, deceased flag, body, role, current or deregistered office, how elected and liability share); Estonian officers (first names, name, body, role and register entry date); Cypriot officers (name and role); representatives of Romanian companies and appointees of their proceedings (name and role); officers appointed or removed by Spanish BORME notices (name and role, in the text as published); officers joining or leaving a monitored French company, reported by monitoring events (name and first names); French officers a monitoring follows under the name the client gives, reported by its events (SIREN numbers of the companies where they hold office); persons on the AMF blacklists whose name matches a monitored company, reported by monitoring events (name). For these persons, birth is never served more precisely than the year, neither month nor day. Apart from the establishment address, the SIREN number, the SIRET number and the EU VAT number stated above, no personal address or national identification number is served. Monitoring events are served by GET /v1/surveillance/{jeton}, by webhook and by email. Deeds filed with INPI (GET /v1/documents/actes/{id}, identified accounts only) are served as published: they may carry a full date of birth and an address.
• When in doubt between an individual and a legal entity: we omit. Resolving that doubt at random publishes personal data by mistake.

How you pay

Every route is paid per call, two ways, with no subscription: over x402, in USDC or EURC on the Base network, with no account and no API key; or with the API key of an account, which opens the free quota. Over x402, the first call returns a 402 quote your client settles, then replays the call. A failed call is never billed.

Open today: 150 free calls a month with an account, on 124 of 130 routes (the price list says which), and pay-per-call over x402 (USDC or EURC), with no account except registry filings. Prepaid credits: card top-up is not open yet.

Paid responses are Ed25519-signed: you can later prove what was served to you, and when. The whole catalogue is free to read in the OpenAPI document and in llms.txt.

One call, end to end

# x402 client (npm): the 402 quote is settled and the call replayed automatically
npx x402-fetch https://api.sirenic.eu/v1/entreprise/552032534

# Or over MCP, in Claude Code / Cursor
claude mcp add --transport http sirenic https://api.sirenic.eu/mcp

# Or as a local server (stdio), with your key or an x402 wallet
claude mcp add sirenic -e SIRENIC_API_KEY=srn_live_... -- npx -y sirenic-mcp

Routes used and pricing

The ownership data served for France is not a beneficial-ownership register and does not replace one: the French register has not been publicly accessible since the 2022 ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union. What is served comes from publicly filed deeds.

Frequently asked questions

Why not expose a French register like others do?

Because it is no longer public. Serving it would require an authorisation we do not hold, or a source of doubtful legality. We prefer a stated absence to a field filled without a basis.

Are ceased UK controllers included?

Not by default. Add inclure_cesses=true to get ceased legal entities, with their cessation date, useful to reconstruct a past ownership chain. Ceased natural persons are counted, like active ones.

Take it further

The first step is free and shows you exactly what you would be buying, with no account or key; an account, with its API key, then opens the free quota.

See a real response (free) Get the quote for /v1/eu/entreprise/GB/{company_number}/beneficiaires-effectifs Read the route reference Create an account: 150 free calls a month

Read next

• Automating business verification (KYB)
• Querying European company registers

OpenAPI · llms.txt · Full route catalogue and pricing