On February 3, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a practical guide (Guide) to the national rules across the European Economic Area (EEA) on the implementation of the EU/EEA Transparency Directive’s requirements relating to major shareholding notifications (i.e., EEA long-position reporting requirements).

The Transparency Directive requires investors to notify issuers of their holdings in securities in which the investor acquires or disposes of shares, resulting in voting rights exceeding certain thresholds. The implementation of such requirements differs across the jurisdictions of the EEA.

The Guide is divided into two parts. The first is a country-by-country overview of the implementation of the Transparency Directive in each of the EEA jurisdictions (excluding Lichtenstein), including information such as the notification thresholds, where to get further information from the applicable national regulator and the deadlines for notification. The second part consists of tables allowing for comparison between the different jurisdictions. ESMA has worked with the national regulators of each of the jurisdictions to produce the Guide.

ESMA aims to keep the Guide up to date and amend it on an ad hoc basis.