Investors can only take well-informed decisions, and will only not be at a disadvantage compared to insiders, if all market participants are made aware of inside information swiftly and comprehensively. Entities covered by these regulations must therefore inform the public without undue delay – i.e. ad hoc – about unknown circumstances at their companies that by their nature could influence the price of the financial instrument or the cryptoasset concerned and that directly concern the company (Article 17(1) of the MAR and Article 88(1) of the MiCAR).

Issuers are obliged by law to publish inside information relating to financial instruments using a widely disseminated electronic information system and a combination of different media designed to circulate the information throughout Europe. In addition, issuers must submit the disclosures to the company register for filing. If an issuer has a website, it must also publicly display the inside information there for a minimum of five years. Issuers and providers of cryptoassets and persons applying for authorisation to trade in such assets are subject to similar obligations in relation to the dissemination of information and its publication on the entity’s website and in the media. This is to ensure that inside information is disseminated simultaneously and free of charge throughout Europe to as many recipients as possible without discrimination. The inside information must also be submitted to BaFin.

Emission allowance market participants whose issues exceed certain minimum thresholds are obliged to disclose publicly, effectively and in a timely manner inside information concerning the emission allowances that they hold in respect of their business. One example of this relates to the planned or unplanned unavailability of installations.

BaFin may fine entities that fail to publish inside information covered by the ad hoc disclosure requirements, that fail to publish the information in a timely manner, or that publish incorrect or incomplete information. When examining this, BaFin also considers the extent to which issuers or emission allowance market participants, cryptoasset providers and persons applying for authorisation to trade in cryptoassets have exercised statutory exemptions in a due and proper manner.

Article 17 of the MAR and Article 88 of the MiCAR have been supplemented at the European level by a number of Level 2 and Level 3 measures. In addition, the German Securities Trading Act (Wertpapierhandelsgesetz – WpHG), the German Securities Trading Reporting Regulation (Wertpapierhandelsanzeigeverordnung – WpAV), the German Cryptomarkets Supervision Act (Kryptomärkteaufsichtsgesetz – KMAG) and the German Cryptomarket Disclosure Regulation (Kryptomärktemitteilungs-Verordnung – KMMV) continue to apply at national level. In addition, BaFin has published Issuer Guidelines that offer further guidance for issuers of financial instruments.