Re: [open-regulatory-compliance] FAQ - does the CRA impact me

[Dirk-Willem van Gulik <dirkx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 20 Dec 2024, at 15:52, Simon Phipps <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

3)      What is a legal Person

        => The CRA and other EU regulation generally distinguishes natural persons (i.e. humans) and legal persons (i.e companies, foundations, trusts, societies).

        However there is a catch - groups of people acting in concert are generally seen as a legal person as well - even if they did not bother to create a society, trust, foundation or company.

        So in general - it is fair to assume that one natural person teaming up with another natural person - who then work together towards a common goal is to be seen as a legal person.

        The converse is may also be true -- a single natural person who has not created some legal entity is likely out of scope.

We asked about this during a meeting with the Commission last April and were told that in this context "legal person" was intended to include rather than exclude natural persons. Since then I have heard both interpretations used widely so I suspect this is going to need to be one of the points of clarification by the Expert Group. 

Same here for the ASF - during two events. But I've not seen the promised clarifications post those meetings.

Instead - in two places in the final text where edited to make it even more an either/or. And if we search through a lot of other EU legislation and CJEU examples - it seems that the dominant interpretation is an either/or. Not a `natural persons' is a special subset of the larger `legal persons' group.

So I thought it best to stay on the safe side here ? Or is that unwise ? Happy to rewrite that draft answer in the sub/superset way.

Secondly - the fact that this interpretation makes a  single-developer, lone natural person, doing something which by definition cannot survive/be maintained/get any decent 4 eye processes 'exit' to the 'NOT IN SCOPE'. I.e. in the cases where they get caught up in that wide `brought sense' of the second blue box.

Dw