Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP (JD Supra European Union)

On April 21, 2021, the European Commission (Commission) published its draft Regulation on Artificial Intelligence (AI). It follows the strategies outlined in the February 2020 Commission’s White Paper on AI. The draft Regulation is of key importance to users and providers of AI, not only because it is the first attempt at comprehensive regulation of AI, but also because it may well become the...

The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) have published the draft Regulatory Technical Standards (“Taxonomy RTS”) on product-level disclosures that apply to funds or portfolios that promote or make environmentally sustainable investments in accordance with the criteria of the EU Taxonomy Regulation.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has announced that the temporary lower net short position reporting threshold of 0.1 percent under the EU Short Selling Regulation (SSR) with respect to shares traded on an EU regulated market will end today, 19 March 2021. Similarly, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Surveillance Authority has also decided to end the 0.1 percent lower

The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) have published a Supervisory Statement to clarify the application of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) in anticipation of the requirements applying in the European Economic Area (EEA) from 10 March 2021. The Supervisory Statement does not impose new requirements on financial market participants and advisers, but confirms the industry...

The European Commission recently published two highly anticipated draft documents to facilitate data transfers. The first was the new, updated and modernised standard contractual clauses (“New SCCs”) for the transfer of personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA), envisaged under Article 46 of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679) (GDPR). The second was...

European financial supervisory authorities have requested the European Commission to clarify key areas of ambiguity regarding the scope and application of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), including its extraterritorial application. The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) responsible for drafting the regulatory technical standards under the SFDR...

On November 10, 2020, the recently established Taskforce of the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), a body consisting of representatives of all the Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) in the European Economic Area (EEA), adopted two sets of Recommendations (one draft and the other finalised), both addressing the aftermath of the landmark Schrems II decision of the Court of Justice of the...

United Kingdom, French and Belgian national security laws (and such laws of other EU Member States) fell under the scrutiny of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which on October 6, 2020, ruled on whether such laws were compatible with European Union (EU) privacy, data protection and fundamental rights principles. The take-away point is that the CJEU confirmed that certain...

On Friday September 4, 2020, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), a body consisting of representatives of all the Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) in the European Economic Area, announced that it had formed two new taskforces, following the groundbreaking Schrems II ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in July 2020. In that judgment, the CJEU held that Standard...

- On July 24, the European Commission (EC) published an updated report (the “Report”) on the progress made by member states in implementing measures aimed at addressing the national security risks and mitigation strategies related to the rollout of 5G within the EU (known as the “5G Toolkit”). - By way of background, the objective of the 5G Toolkit is to set out a coordinated European...

On July 16, 2020, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg handed down its highly anticipated judgment in a case brought by privacy activist Max Schrems (C-311/18, Data Protection Commissioner v. Facebook Ireland Limited, Maximillian Schrems (“Schrems II”)). The seminal judgment upholds the use of Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) but only in certain...

On 27 March 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) launched a public consultation on its draft guidelines to assess leverage risks in the Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) sector. In particular, ESMA is seeking stakeholders’ feedback on the proposed principles to set leverage limits under Article 25 of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (Directive 2011/61/EU) (A

On 5 June 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published its final guidelines on certain aspects of the recast Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) compliance function requirements (the “Guidelines”). Recent years have seen regulators increasingly focus on testing the effectiveness of the compliance function of regulated firms, as well as a shift to...

On 3 June 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published two Opinions clarifying how European Union investment firms trading financial instruments on third-country trading venues (TCTVs) should, from 3 October 2020...

Derivatives reporting responsibilities under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) will change from 18 June 20201, as (i) alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs) will become responsible for reporting for their alternative investment funds (AIFs); and (ii) entities which are “financial counterparties” (FCs) will become responsible for reporting for their “NFC- entities”. The

On 10 June 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) renewed its decision to temporarily require holders of net short positions in shares traded on a European Union regulated market to notify the relevant national competent authority if the position exceeds 0.1 percent of the issued share capital. Previously, on 18 May 2020, ESMA had announced that the net short position...

On 18 May 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) announced the non-renewal of the emergency restrictions on short selling and similar transactions by the Finanzmarktaufsicht (FMA) of Austria, the Financial Securities and Markets Authority (FSMA) of Belgium, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) of France, the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) of Greece and the...

- EC extends the Temporary State Aid Framework to allow member states to provide recapitalizations to companies adversely affected by the COVID-19 crisis, including airlines, retailers and firms active in hospitality, leisure and transport. - Governments can now more readily acquire equity in strategically important companies—such as those active in energy, aviation, critical technology,...

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has confirmed the renewal of the emergency restrictions on short selling and similar transactions by the Finanzmarktaufsicht (FMA) of Austria, the Financial Securities and Markets Authority (FSMA) of Belgium, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) of France, the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) of Greece and the Comisión Nacional...

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has confirmed that it has adjusted its systems to facilitate reporting in accordance with the decision of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) of 16 March 2020 to temporarily lower the threshold for notifying net short positions to European Union regulator under the Short Selling Regulation (SSR) from 0.2 percent of issued share capital to 0.1

The European Commission (EC) on March 25, 2020 issued new guidance on foreign investment screening in response to the COVID-19 emergency (the “Guidance”). The Guidance, which addresses the now 27 EU Member States and relates in particular (but which is “by no means limited”) to health care-related industries, sets out a threefold action plan to tackle COVID-19-related foreign investment risk...

Following on from Friday’s temporary prohibitions on short selling, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and the U.K. have announced temporary prohibitions on short selling of specified shares exercising the exceptional powers granted under the European Union Short Selling Regulation (“Short Selling Regulation”) in light of the continued market disruption. The temporary prohibitions generally exclude...

Further bans on all types of short selling have been extended by financial regulators in Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy and the UK (in respect of the shares identified by the Spanish and Italian regulators) and now prohibit the creation of new and the increase of existing net short positions (including intraday net short positions), whether through derivative instruments, American...

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has yesterday, March 16, 2020, issued a decision to temporarily lower the net short position notification threshold under the European Union Short Selling Regulation from 0.2 percent of the issued share capital of the relevant company to 0.1 percent of the issued share capital of the company concerned, and each 0.1 percent above that threshold.

As a result of the disruption experienced in a number of markets, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Italian securities regulator (Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB)) and the Spanish securities regulator (Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV)) have issued a temporary prohibition of short selling certain shares today, March 13, 2020. We set out below...

The European Commission has clarified in a letter to the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) published on February 10, 2020, further to AIMA’s request for clarification, that the requirement to report securities financing transactions (SFTs) under the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR) does not apply to alternative investment funds (AIFs) which are established...

On February 19, 2020, the European Commission (Commission) published proposals for the regulation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with potentially far-reaching implications both for users and developers worldwide. The proposals are contained in a densely written 26-page “White Paper” which in this alert we distill down to 10 take-away points. The White Paper, together with the other strategy...

Geopolitical uncertainty and escalating trade tensions have combined to add additional layers of complexity and risk to the dealmaking process in recent years. Through this tumultuous period, however, cross-border M&A deal flow has remained surprisingly resilient. Dealmakers with a long-term outlook and a willingness to look beyond the headlines have found ways to navigate these issues. In...

The new European Union rules requiring reporting by fund managers of securities financing transactions (SFT) take effect on October 11, 2020. While the scope of the reporting requirements under Article 4 of the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation 2015/2365 (SFTR) has been subject to some discussion, the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) guidance has provided helpful...

The last few weeks have seen a raft of new investor-state arbitrations under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), including the first known investor-state claim against the European Union (EU) itself. These claims largely arise from policy decisions by governments of signatory states as they seek to move away from fossil fuels and toward renewable sources of energy. Globally, such policy decisions...