ESMA’s interventions as an effective measure to protect the public good in the EU

Abstract

On 1 January 2011, the European System of Financial Supervision began to operate, under which the European Supervisory Authorities were entrusted with tasks related to consumer protection. As part of them, the ESAs are empowered to directly interfere with the activities of financial institutions. Namely, all ESAs have been empowered to issue binding decisions on product interventions in an emergency. Additionally, ESMA was granted the possibility to intervene in exceptional circumstances within the meaning of Art. 28 of Regulation No. 236/2012, which was examined for legality by the CJEU (case C-270/12). The main purpose of this study is to assess ESA’s intervention powers in the context of the contemporary paradigm of protecting financial services customers. However, special attention in this regard was given to ESMA Decision 2020/525 of 16/03/2020, as it is the first and so far the only intervention aimed at market participants, implemented in an exceptional period, i.e. during the COVID-19 pandemic.