On Thursday 14 November, the EU Listing Act Package was published in the Official Journal of the EU. 

The EU Listing Act Package was published in December 2022 and aims at fostering the capacity of SMEs to be listed on public and growth markets. The Package will enter into force on 4 December 2024 and is made up of the following three texts:

• Directive amending provisions in MiFID II, which will apply from 6 June 2026.
• Regulation amending the Prospectus Regulation, the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) and MiFIR, which will apply from between 4 December 2024 and 5 June 2026, depending on the provisions.
• Directive on multiple-vote share structures in companies that seek admission to trading of their shares on a multilateral trading facility (MTF), which shall be transposed by 5 December 2026.

Following successful AIMA advocacy, the Directive amending provisions in MiFID II includes amendments to remove the market capitalisation threshold for companies for which the re-bundling of payments for execution services and research is possible to allow investment firms to pay for execution services and investment research in the way they find most appropriate (that is, via separate or joint payment methods).

In terms of next steps, ESMA has been requested to provide technical advice to the European Commission on the implementation of the amendments to MiFID II (and the Prospectus Regulation and Market Abuse Regulation) in the context of the Listing Act Directive. ESMA is consulting on which approach to take to related changes to Article 13 of the MiFID II Delegated Directive. The consultation closes on 28 January 2025. ESMA aims to provide its technical advice to the European Commission in Q2 2025.

If you have any questions, please contact Aniqah Rao.