EU Regulation 2024/1689 on Artificial Intelligence has the aim to introduce strict rules for the design, implementation and placing on the market of Artificial Intelligence systems, to be applied both to suppliers established in European territory and to suppliers established outside the European Union.
The European Council adopted the new Product Liability Directive on 10 October 2024, and it is now awaiting publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. From its entry into force, member states will have two years to transpose it into their national law. The new directive derogates Directive 85/374/CEE. Considering the current context in which digitalization and business models based on sustainability and the circular economy are booming, it was crucial to carry out an update of the rules governing the civil liability of manufacturers and other operators of defective products.
The new EU Capital Requirements Directive establishes a new harmonized and more restrictive framework for cross-border banking and lending into the EU. The new third country branch rules will prohibit the provision of certain banking services into the EU on a cross-border basis by firms outside the EU, unless done in accordance with limited exemptions.
On 17 September 2024, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), an EU body that prosecutes among others financial crimes that affect the EU budget, announced that it is seeking criminal penalties from two companies and five of their directors of more than 8 years imprisonment along with a fine of over EUR 25 million. Over 30 properties linked to the defendants were seized to ensure that the defendants can meet their financial liabilities.
On 28 June 2024, the European Ecodesign Regulation (2024/1781/EU) (“Ecodesign Regulation”) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union and entered into force on 18 July 2024. This Regulation means a radical change in the manufacturing method of a wide variety of products and directly affects the supply chain of all those companies that intend to introduce products into the European Union. Its fundamental aim is to make products more sustainable by introducing a series of requirements and prohibitions that will be adapted to each product group by means of delegated acts of the European Commission.
The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive exempts financial institutions from due diligence to identify, mitigate and remedy potential adverse impacts, whether human rights or environmental, in their downstream “chain of activities”. In practice, however, it will be hard to escape entirely, not least as the sector will still need to adopt and implement transition plans.
Navigating regulatory compliance in the fast-paced crypto markets is challenging. The MiCAR Compliance Toolkit provides you with the practical steps needed to help you prepare for the new regulatory regime for cryptoassets in the EU.
The European Parliament has adopted the new AML/CFT legislative package, which aims to comprehensively strengthen the EU rules to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, including the establishing of a new EU authority to supervise directly the riskiest entities, an EU limit on large cash payments up to EUR 10,000, and more detailed, directly applicable rules regarding customer due diligence and beneficial ownership.
On 14 May 2024, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published guidelines on fund names using environmental, social and governance (ESG) or sustainability-related terms. The main purpose of these guidelines is to enhance investor protection with regard to funds named in ways suggesting an investment focus in companies that meet certain sustainability standards. Against this backdrop and after the public consultation launched on 18 November 2022, ESMA clarifies what investors may expect in terms of policies, practices and characteristics of funds consistent with sustainability standards, as also the circumstances where a fund name with ESG or sustainability-related terms is indicative of unfair, unclear or misleading practices.
The European Commission launched the European (EU) Green Deal in 2019. The EU Green Deal is a package of policy initiatives, one of which is a commitment to tackle false environmental claims by requiring that consumers receive reliable, comparable, and verifiable information to enable them to make more sustainable decisions and reduce the risk of greenwashing.