Une information privilégiée ne peut cesser d’être non publique que par une publication conforme à l’article 17 du Règlement MAR

Written by Gaël Rivière

Published in the Revue du Contentieux Financier et Boursier no. 2

In its Brännelius ruling, the Court of Justice held that, in order to be considered “made public” within the meaning of Article 7, § 1, (a), of the MAR Regulation, information must have been published, at the issuer’s initiative, in accordance with the requirements of Article 17 of that regulation and Implementing Regulation 2016/1055. While the outcome of this ruling is generally accepted since a notification sent to a limited circle of recipients and available to the public only upon request could easily escape the attention of a reasonable and normally diligent investor—its broad scope calls for greater caution. By appearing to limit the power to render inside information public solely to the issuer’s own organized disclosure channels, the ruling substitutes a formal criterion for the case-by-case assessment of the actual effectiveness of dissemination, which had previously been carried out by French authorities and courts.