Safeguarding Financial Integrity and Privacy in the EU's Internal Market: Balancing Anti-Money Laundering Obligations against Fundamental Rights to Privacy

Sammanfattning: The thesis explores the EU’s anti-money laundering framework’s compatibility with conditions required under privacy rights. It asks the question whether the anti-money laundering framework confers obligations to private entities and other actors not belonging to law enforcement in a way which risks violation to the fundamental rights to privacy and data protection. The thesis elucidates the significance of privacy rights in the EU as underpinned by the principles of privacy in the European Convention of Human Rights. Moreover, the thesis examines the lawful conditions for far-reaching data-processing. It clarifies that the cases of the Court of Justice of the European Union require, among other conditions, clear and precise rules to limit the extent of interference of the right to privacy and, a link to serious crimes, to process personal data in a far-reaching manner. Additionally, the thesis highlights the complementary role of the General Data Protection Regulation in support of privacy rules within the internal market. It finds that the AML-directives rely on private entities for the detection, monitoring and reporting of all individuals using financial services while including few safeguards to limit the interference with the right to privacy. Instead, the AML-directives direct the responsibility of safeguarding data protection to the Member States, despite providing few incentives for the adequate protection of data privacy while fulfilling the AML-objectives. Furthermore, it is found that there is uncertainty regarding which data-protection framework a financial intelligence unit must be subject to, resulting in discrepancies in data-protection commitments during the request of exchange for information. Consequently, another Member State’s financial intelligence unit has access to a vast amount of personal data with little to no restriction. It therefore states that there are multiple risks of violation of the EU Charter as Member States are required to navigate and comply with the conflicting AML-obligations and the robust privacy rights. Against this background, the thesis concludes that there are risks that Member States violate the principles of necessity and proportionality under Article 52(1) of the EU Charter due to the incoherency of norms. Lastly, the thesis reiterates the commercial roots upon which the internal market is established could lead to an overshadowed fundamental rights protection while prioritising commercial mobility using Article 114 TFEU. Consequently, such legal incoherency could erode the privacy rights established under Articles 7 and 8 of the EU Charter, overshadowing the fundamental right to privacy.