On 19 April 2018, the European Parliament adopted the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5MLD).
The Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) recently delivered a preliminary ruling stating that (Italian) national legislation allowing contracting authorities to allow tenderers, whose tender is vitiated by serious irregularities, to rectify its tender, within a certain time limit and subject to payment of a fixed financial penalty, was not contrary to EU law - provided that the amount of that penalty is proportionate.
Following the introduction of ESMA’s new product intervention power under Art. 40 of MiFIR, on the 27th of March 2018, the ESMA has agreed on temporary product intervention measures (the “Measures”) on the provision of contracts for differences (“CFDs”) and binary options to retail investors in the European Union (“EU”).
The Malta Financial Services Authority (“MFSA”) has issued a consultation paper (the “Paper”) on the financial instrument test (the “Test”) for virtual financial assets (“Assets”).
Last month, the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) ruled that Austria’s direct award of service contracts for the printing of chip passports, emergency passports, residence permits, identity cards, credit card-sized driving licences and credit card-sized vehicle registration certificates without an EU-wide call for tenders constituted a breach of its obligations under EU public procurement law.
On 20th March 2018, Legal Notice 82 of 2018 was published by the Minister responsible for Finance, whereby the applicability of the reduced rate of 1.5% on duty incurred in respect of intra-family donations of company shares and immovable property used within a family business, as contemplated by the Duty on Donations of Marketable Securities and Immovable Property Used for Business (Exemption) Order 2017, was extended by half a year.