Criminal Sanctions for Insider Dealing and Market Manipulation (Directive)

The Commission proposes to introduce EU-wide minimum rules regarding criminal sanctions for insider dealing and market manipulation. It wishes to harmonise the offences yet not the levels of penalties. To date, there are only administrative sanctions. The Commission’s aim is to increase the deterrent effect of national sanctions.

cepPolicyBrief

A general prohibition of insider dealing has a positive impact on growth and employment. However, due to the unclear terminology, the application of criminal law to market manipulation leads to legal uncertainty. The EU has the competency only subject to the condition that the introduction of EU-wide sanction rules is “essential”. Currently this is rather questionable.

Download PDF

Criminal Sanctions for Insider Dealing and Market Manipulation COM(2011) 654 (publ. 06.05.2014)	PDF	77 KB	Download

Proposal for a Directive COM(2011) 654 (publ. 06.05.2014)	PDF	52 KB	Download