On March 17th 2016 Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/378 of March 11th 2016 (the “Implementing Regulation”) was published in the Official Journal. The Implementing Regulation lays down implementing technical standards with regard to the timing, format and template of the submission of notifications to competent authorities in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 16th 2014 on market abuse (“MAR”).
The main purposes of the technical standards laid down by the Implementing Regulation were to ensure the coherence of reporting obligations, to reduce the administrative burden for entities subject to reporting obligations, to enable the competent authorities and the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) to ensure data quality and effective monitoring.
The Implementing Regulation therefore specifies the timing and manner for notifications by trading venues to competent authorities, and the onward transmission of those notifications by the competent authorities to ESMA, as required by MAR. The Annex to the Implementing Regulation sets out the standards and formats of the notifications.
The Implementing Regulation entered into force on March 18th 2016 and its provisions will apply from the same date as those laid down by MAR, July 3rd 2016.