Directive 2010/73/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 amending Directives 2003/71/EC on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading and 2004/109/EC on the harmonisation of transparency requirements in relation to information about issuers whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market Text with EEA relevance

• Celex Number: 32010L0073
• Coming into Force: 31 December 2010
• End of Effective Date: 31 December 9999
• ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2010/73/oj
• Published date: 11 December 2010
• Date: 24 November 2010
• Official Gazette Publication: Official Journal of the European Union, L 327, 11 December 2010

11.12.2010 EN Official Journal of the European Union L 327/1

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DIRECTIVE 2010/73/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 24 November 2010

amending Directives 2003/71/EC on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading and 2004/109/EC on the harmonisation of transparency requirements in relation to information about issuers whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Articles 50 and 114 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Central Bank (2),

Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (3),

Whereas:

(1) The European Council agreed, at its meeting on 8 and 9 March 2007, that administrative burdens on companies should be reduced by 25 % by the year 2012 in order to enhance the competitiveness of companies in the Union.

(2) Some of the obligations provided for in Directive 2003/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) have been identified by the Commission as appearing to be excessively burdensome on companies.

(3) Those obligations need to be reviewed in order to reduce the burdens weighing on companies within the Union to the necessary minimum without compromising the protection of investors and the proper functioning of the securities markets in the Union.

(4) Directive 2003/71/EC requires the Commission to make an assessment of the application of that Directive 5 years after the date of its entry into force and to present, where appropriate, proposals for its review. That assessment has revealed that certain elements of Directive 2003/71/EC should be amended in order to simplify and improve its application, increase its efficiency and enhance the international competitiveness of the Union, thereby contributing to the reduction of administrative burdens.

(5) Following the conclusions of the report of the High-Level Group on Financial Supervision in the EU (the ‘de Larosière report’), the Commission put forward concrete legislative proposals on 23 September 2009 in order to establish a European System of Financial Supervisors comprising a network of national financial supervisors working in tandem with new European supervisory authorities. One of those new authorities, the European Supervisory Authority (European Securities and Markets Authority), is to replace the Committee of European Securities Regulators.

(6) The way limits of maximum offering amounts are calculated in Directive 2003/71/EC should be clarified for reasons of legal certainty and efficiency. The total consideration for certain offers referred to in that Directive should be computed on a Union-wide basis.

(7) For the purposes of private placements of securities, investment firms and credit institutions should be entitled to treat as qualified investors those persons or entities that are described in points (1) to (4) of Section I of Annex II to Directive 2004/39/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on markets in financial instruments (5) and other persons or entities that are treated as professional clients, åor that are recognised eligible counterparties in accordance with Directive 2004/39/EC. Investment firms authorised to continue considering existing professional clients as such in accordance with Article 71(6) of Directive 2004/39/EC should be authorised to treat those clients as qualified investors under this Directive. Such an alignment of the relevant provisions of Directives 2003/71/EC and 2004/39/EC is likely to reduce complexity and costs for investment firms in the event of private placements because the firms would be able to define the persons or entities to whom the placement is to be addressed relying on their own list of professional clients and eligible counterparties. The issuer should be able to rely on the list of professional clients and eligible counterparties that has been drawn up in accordance with Annex II to Directive 2004/39/EC. The definition of qualified investors in Directive 2003/71/EC should therefore be widened to include those persons or entities and no separate regime for registers should be maintained.

(8) Ensuring the correct and full application of Union law is a core prerequisite for the integrity, efficiency and orderly functioning of financial markets. It is expected that the establishment of the European Supervisory Authority (European Securities and Markets Authority) will contribute to that goal by issuing a single rulebook and by fostering a more convergent approach regarding the scrutiny and approval of prospectuses. The Commission should undertake a review of Article 2(1)(m)(ii) of Directive 2003/71/EC in relation to the limitation on the determination of the home Member State for issues of non-equity securities with a denomination below EUR 1 000. Following that review, it should consider whether the provision should be maintained or revoked.

(9) The threshold of EUR 50 000 in Article 3(2)(c) and (d) of Directive 2003/71/EC no longer reflects the distinction between retail investors and professional investors in terms of investor capacity, since it appears that even retail investors have recently made investments of more than EUR 50 000 in a single transaction. For that reason it is appropriate to increase the said threshold and amend other provisions in which that threshold is mentioned accordingly. Corresponding adjustments should be made in Directive 2004/109/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (6). Following those adjustments and taking into consideration the outstanding period of debt securities, there should be a grandfathering provision in relation to Article 8(1)(b), Article 18(3) and Article 20(6) of Directive 2004/109/EC in respect of debt securities with a denomination per unit of at least EUR 50 000, which have already been admitted to trading on a regulated market in the Union prior to the entry into force of this Directive.

(10) A valid prospectus, drawn up by the issuer or the person responsible for drawing up the prospectus and available to the public at the time of the final placement of securities through financial intermediaries or in any subsequent resale of securities, provides sufficient information for investors to make informed investment decisions. Therefore, financial intermediaries placing or subsequently reselling the securities should be entitled to rely upon the initial prospectus published by the issuer or the person responsible for drawing up the prospectus as long as this is valid and duly supplemented in accordance with Articles 9 and 16 of Directive 2003/71/EC and the issuer or the person responsible for drawing up the prospectus consents to its use. The issuer or the person responsible for drawing up the prospectus should be able to attach conditions to his or her consent. The consent, including any conditions attached thereto, should be given in a written agreement between the parties involved enabling assessment by relevant parties of whether the resale or final placement of securities complies with the agreement. In the event that consent to use the prospectus has been given, the issuer or person responsible for drawing up the initial prospectus should be liable for the information stated therein and in case of a base prospectus, for providing and filing final terms and no other prospectus should be required. However, in case the issuer or the person responsible for drawing up such initial prospectus does not consent to its use, the financial intermediary should be required to publish a new prospectus. In that case, the financial intermediary should be liable for the information in the prospectus, including all information incorporated by reference and, in case of a base prospectus, final terms.

(11) In order to allow for the efficient application of Directive 2003/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on insider dealing and market manipulation (market abuse) (7), Directive 2003/71/EC and Directive 2004/109/EC and to clarify underlying problems of differentiation and overlaps, the Commission should put forward a definition for each of the terms ‘primary market’, ‘secondary market’ and ‘public offer’.

(12) Liability regimes in the Member States are significantly different due to national competence in civil law. In order to identify and monitor the arrangements in the Member States, the Commission should establish a comparative table of Member States’ regimes.

(13) Article 4(1)(d) of Directive 2003/71/EC provides that the obligation to publish a prospectus does not apply to shares offered, allotted or to be allotted free of charge to existing shareholders. Under Article 3(2)(e) of that Directive an offer with a total consideration of less than EUR 100 000 is entirely exempt from the requirement to publish a prospectus. The exemption in Article 4(1)(d) is therefore redundant, since an offer that is free of charge falls within the scope of Article 3(2)(e).

(14) The current exemptions for securities offered, allotted or to be allotted to existing or former employees or directors are too restrictive to be useful to a significant number of employers operating share schemes for employees in the Union. Participation of employees in the Union is particularly important for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in which individual employees are likely to have a significant role in the

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