vLex European Union

The EU legislative bodies have announced that political agreement has been reached on the proposed Regulation on European Crowdfunding Service Providers for Business. The proposed ECSP Regulation is part of the EU Capital Markets Union initiative and the Commission's FinTech Action Plan. It aims to increase access to finance through crowdfunding for innovative companies, start-ups and SMEs. The European Commission published the original legislative proposal on March 8, 2018. Since then, the text of the proposed ECSP Regulation has been amended. (See Article)

On January 15, the Court of Justice of the European Union’s (CJEU) Advocate General (AG) Manuel Campos Sánchez-Bordona delivered his Opinion on four references for preliminary rulings on the topic of retention of and access to communications data. (See Article)

BREXIT - Please see the Markets and Markets Infrastructure section for the publication of Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/2211 on CCP regulatory framework equivalence in the OJ and ESMA’s related amended recognition decisions. Please see full article below for more information. (See Article)

The European Commission has launched two consultations on digitalization in the financial sector. They form part of the EU’s new Digital Finance Strategy which aims to deepen the Single Market for digital financial services, promote a data-driven EU financial sector while addressing the risks inherent in that and enhance the digital operational resilience of the financial system. The first consultation paper focuses on crypto-assets and seeks participants’ views on a framework to support the development of crypto-assets while addressing the risks they pose. The second consultation paper focuses on the digital operational resilience of the EU financial sector and the establishment of an EU-wide framework to support existing measures on ICT security and risk management. Responses to both consultations should be submitted by March 19, 2020. The Commission may consult on other issues in the coming months. (See Article)

France, Germany and the United Kingdom, known as the “E3”, announced on 14 January 2020 that they had triggered the dispute resolution mechanism under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”) due to concerns about Iran’s implementation of agreed JCPOA commitments. This is a first step towards potential future re-imposition of the sanctions lifted by the European Union (“EU”) and United Nations (“UN”) under the JCPOA in 2016, but for now such sanctions lifting continues. (See Article)

Report on Supply Chain Compliance 3, no. 1 (January 9, 2020) - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled the new Green Deal on Dec. 11, including a formal intention to include maritime shipping in the European Union’s emission trading system. The EU removed maritime from the system in 2017 at the behest of shipping companies and the secretary general of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), Kitack Lim, in favor of a global strategy for reducing greenhouse gases, spearheaded by the IMO itself. (See Article)

The Financial Stability Board has published its work program for 2020. The FSB confirms that it will continue to monitor developments to identify and manage new and emerging risks, work to finalize the outstanding components of the post-crisis reforms and assess the implementation of reforms as well as their effects. Key areas of focus will be... (See Article)

Clinical trials have become increasingly important for pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers, which are focused on collecting as much data as possible on products and devices and their adverse effects. All of this “big data” also have high value, not only for clinical trials, but also for further analysis and R&D to improve products. (See Article)

The European Banking Authority has published final draft Regulatory Technical Standards governing the standardized approach to counterparty credit risk in derivatives transactions. The final draft SA-CCR RTS will supplement the requirements set out in the EU's Capital Requirements Regulation, as amended by CRR 2. The SA-CCR requirements aim to address the shortcomings of existing calculation methods to ensure parties are adequately protected in the event of default by a counterparty to a derivatives transaction and these final draft RTS aim to ensure a more harmonized calculation of own funds requirements for counterparty credit risk than has been the case under CRR. (See Article)

The French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) published new Guidelines (French only) on December 10, 2019 applicable to whistleblowing schemes, following a public consultation process. The Guidelines replace the former Single Authorization AU-004, which has not applied since arrival of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). (See Article)

A new Regulation and Directive amending certain provisions of the Capital Requirements Regulation on covered bonds and introducing standards on the issuance of covered bonds and covered bond public supervision has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The Regulation and Directive will both enter into force on January 7, 2020. The Regulation will apply directly in all Member States from July 8, 2022, while Member States must publish national legislation implementing the Directive by July 8, 2021 and must apply that legislation from July 8, 2022. (See Article)

The securing of a significant majority by the Conservatives in the December UK general election means that it is now likely that the UK will indeed leave the European Union (EU) on 31 January 2020. The EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement, which was agreed at a political level on 17 October 2019 and sets the terms of the UK’s departure from the EU, must now be approved, ratified and implemented. From a UK perspective, the legislation giving legal effect to the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement (the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill, the WAB) is proceeding through Parliament and, in light of the significant majority of the Conservative government, is expected to become law before 31 January 2020 (exit day) without significant amendment. Please see full article below for more information. (See Article)

White & Case Technology Newsflash - On 25 May 2018, the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) entered into force. The GDPR is intended to harmonize data protection regulations within the EU, whereby member states are entitled to supplement or modify certain provisions of the GDPR through opening clauses. A violation of the GDPR can be punished with fines of up to EUR 20 million or four percent of the company's total worldwide annual turnover pursuant to Article 83 (5) GDPR. The calculation model is designed to facilitate a comprehensible, transparent and case-by-case procedure for imposing such fines. (See Article)

The European Commission has invited stakeholders to comment on issues that should be included in the next update of the Blue Guide on the implementation of EU product rules (the Blue Guide). The invitation can be found here. Suggestions should be sent to GROW-B1@ec.europa.eu by 15 January 2020. (See Article)

Firms outside of Europe should be aware of planned upcoming changes to how they access European markets. Key Points: ..The EU legislators have been reviewing various financial services regimes and developing reforms that will affect how foreign firms access EU markets. ..Although arguably motivated by Brexit, the changes will affect any non-EU firms doing business cross-border into the EU, including those in the US and Asia. Please see full Alert below for more information. (See Article)

After a slightly inauspicious start, involving the rejection by the European Parliament of three candidate Commissioners and robust grilling by MEPs of many of the proposed team, the European Commission led by former German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen took office on 1 December 2019, a month later than initially intended. The 26 Commissioners (the UK elected not to nominate a member, given impending Brexit) will serve for a five-year term until 2024, with an ambitious agenda set against a challenging global economic and political outlook. Described by von der Leyen as a ‘geopolitical’ Commission, focused on ensuring that Europe plays a leading part in shaping a ‘better global order’, (See Article)

Editors’ Note: This is the sixth in our fourth-annual end-of-year series examining important trends in data privacy and cybersecurity in the coming year. Our previous entry discussed the CCPA, energy, Brexit, health care regulation, and state enforcement trends. (See Article)

Facebook is at the center of the “Schrems” case, which exposed contradictions between U.S. and EU data privacy rules and toppled the U.S./EU Safe Harbor (Schrems I). In Schrems II, Austrian Max Schrems challenges the adequacy of standard contractual clauses and the Privacy Shield (the replacement to the Safe Harbor). A recent opinion in Schrems II questions the adequacy of privacy protections guaranteed by the U.S. but for now preserves the Privacy Shield and standard contractual clauses as potential adequate means of transferring personal data from the EU to the U.S. (See Article)

The European Supervisory Authorities have each published advice to the European Commission on undue short-term pressure from the financial sector on corporations. The ESAs comprise the European Banking Authority, the European Securities and Markets Authority and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority. The ESAs' advice responds to the European Commission's request in June 2019 for evidence and possible advice on potential undue short-term pressure by financial service participants on corporations... (See Article)

The Financial Stability Board has published a progress report on reforms to major interest rate benchmarks. The report provides the FSB's annual update on progress taken by the official sector and market participants to move from interbank offered rates to overnight risk-free rates by the end of 2021 in line with the FSB's 2014 recommendations... (See Article)

The Financial Stability Board has published a report on the vulnerabilities associated with leveraged loans and collateralized loan obligations. In the report, the FSB assesses how the leveraged loan and CLO markets have developed and analyzes the potential implications for global financial stability. (See Article)

On 23 December 2019, a resolution of 11 September 2018 of the European Parliament (the Parliament) on relationships between the EU and third countries concerning financial services regulation and supervision was published in the Official Journal of the EU. (See Article)

The start of a New Year is a good time to take stock as to what we can expect in European environmental law and policy over the next 12 months. Unlike previous years, 2020 is already shaping up to be a momentous year at both a European and member state level particularly as regards climate change. (See Article)

2 December - The Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") updated the following webpages: - webpage on its July 2018 discussion paper on price discrimination in the cash savings market (PD18/6); and - webpage on its April 2019 feedback statement following its earlier discussion paper on a new duty of care and potential alternative approaches (FS19/2). (See Article)

The dawn of a new year provides a great opportunity to take stock of where EU merger control might go in the next year. In this blog, we outline what we consider to be five key trends to watch out for in EU merger control in 2020. (See Article)

The current perception is that blockchain is not compatible with GDPR. Lokke Moerel and Marijn Storm argue that this is not the case and explain why none of the issues identified by legal scholars and stakeholders are likely to pose issues for blockchain applications. In fact, they conclude that blockchain is well able to be regulated under the GDPR. Please see full Publication below for more information. (See Article)

On 3 December, 2019, Dentons’ EU Competition & Antitrust team held its third complimentary webinar in a series dedicated to vertical restraints in the EU. The first two webinars focused on the recent cooperation strategies in vertical enforcement cases and the current state of play of resale price maintenance (RPM) enforcement in the EU. (See Article)

The EC consults on existing cryptoasset regulatory framework and considers a separate EU framework for cryptoassets outside the current scope.  On 19 December 2019, the European Commission (EC) launched a public consultation to review the suitability and effectiveness of the current EU regulatory framework applicable to cryptoassets. (See Article)

Public awareness regarding air pollution in the European Union is at an all-time high and citizens expect authorities to act. In this vein, the European Commission has recently taken a number of direct and indirect actions, including engagement of the Court of Justice of the EU, enforcement measures against car manufacturers and a Europe-specific “Green Deal,” to stem the tide of rising air pollution and become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050. (See Article)

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides that personal data may only be transferred to a country outside the European Economic Area (EEA) if that country ensures an adequate level of protection for personal data. Although this was also the long-held position under the previous Data Protection Directive, many international organizations only focused on cross-border data transfer arrangements once the GDPR had increased sanctions for non-compliance. (See Article)