*Photo by Isham Fernandez on Unsplash
On 27.01.2022 the Albanian Parliament has enacted law no. 7/2022, which performs changes to the business registry law.
Starting from the end of February 2022, the general penalties applicable to business for failure to perform mandatory failings at the business registry shall be increased to ALL 60,000 (approx. EUR 500) from the previous value of ALL 15,000 (approx. EUR 120).
A penalty of ALL 60,000 shall also apply in case of filing of incorrect data, if the breach does not amount to a criminal offense.
Previously, penalties were increased to ALL 50,000 (approx. EUR 415) specifically for the failure to file a shareholder change within a 30 days deadline, and to ALL 100,000 (approx. EUR 825) for the failure to file the full list of shareholders of a joint stock company, together with the publication of the annual accounts.
Through these surged penalties, the government aims to increase the rate of compliance by businesses operating in Albania.
Notwithstanding possible arguments against the fairness and proportionally of said increased penalties, time will tell if this approach will achieve its goal considering that most of the failures to keep the business registry records up to date re due to oversight and not to unlawful intent.