Competition authorities have started to benefit from the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for enforcing competition law. This leads to Automated Decision-Making (ADM) systems supporting and replacing human decisions in specific phases of competition law enforcement, from the initiation...

This note presents my position regarding the hidden ownership schemes currently employed by the Schaeffler group to build up stakes in Continental AG in preparation for an unsolicited surprise cash-bid for Continental's shares. It summarizes the information publicly available on the Schaeffler /...

This is the introductory chapter to the third edition of the book ' The Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive', 3rd. ed. 2020, provided with kind permission by the publisher WoltersKluwer.The chapter provides an overview of the legislative history leading to the AIFMD, introduces to the...

The UK's withdrawal from the European Union will have – and already has – a dramatic impact on the political, legal and economic landscape, both in Britain and on the continent. This contribution takes a closer look at the effects on individual relationships and businesses. Against the...

Crowdfunding has experienced rapid growth in some EU Member States. However, home bias by investors and regulatory barriers prevent the crowd and the project from moving freely across borders. Crowdfunding has, for the most part, remained a phenomenon of those larger Member States that ‘draw a...

Looking at collective investment schemes from a financial law perspective seems to stand in harsh contrast to the OECD's perspective as expressed in the materials to BEPS Item 6. While financial lawyers emphasize the use of collective investment schemes – for manifold-financial relationships...

Financial technology (‘FinTech') is transforming finance and challenging its regulation at an unprecedented rate. Two major trends stand out in the current period of FinTech development. The first is the speed of change driven by the commoditization of technology, Big Data analytics, machine...

Europe's path to digitization and datafication in finance has rested upon four apparently unrelated pillars: (1) extensive reporting requirements imposed after the Global Financial Crisis to control systemic risk and change financial sector behavior; (2) strict data protection rules reflecting...

This paper examines how the digital financial infrastructure that emerged in the wake of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis is being tested and leveraged to meet some of the financial, economic and health challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The origins of the 2008 crisis and the current...

This paper analyzes the EU’s efforts in designing a social taxonomy for sustainable investments. Examining the draft Social Taxonomy proposed by the Platform for Sustainable Finance in early 2022, we challenge the decision to follow the methodology provided by the EU’s environmental taxonomy...