Civil Liability of Credit Rating Agencies from a European Perspective : Development and Contents of Art 35(a) of Regulation (EU) No 462/2013

The set up of a civil liability regime for Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) is one of the most noteworthy aspects of the new European legislation on CRAs. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the European civil liability regime for CRAs set out in Article 35(a) of Regulation (EU) No 462/2013. In doing so, it will examine the reservations that the major CRAs shared about the establishment of such a regime vis-à-vis the specific framework built up by the European Institutions through Article 35(a).Taking stock of the evolutionary stages which led to the final draft of Article 35(a), this paper aims to understand: 1) why a common civil liability regime for CRAs was needed in the EU; 2) who benefits from this; and 3) whether the concerns initially expressed by the agencies are still valid in light of the framework resulting from the trilogue between the European Institutions