BaFin - Navigation & Service

Stand:updated on 12.01.2024 | Topic Consumer protection Prospectuses and information sheets

To be able to make well-informed investment decisions, investors must be provided with extensive and reliable information about the issuer and the security or investment product concerned.

This means that in Germany, securities and other investment products may not be offered to the public without a securities prospectus or an investment prospectus that has been approved by BaFin. However, offers of securities to the public with issue volumes of between €100,000 and €8 million do not require a prospectus. Offerors of these products must prepare a less extensive document, the securities information sheet. For investment products, the exemption from the prospectus requirement applies for issue volumes of up to €6 million annually. In these cases too, a less extensive document known as the capital investment information sheet must also be prepared by the offeror.

These documents require prior approval from BaFin before they are published. Once approval and permission for publication has been granted by BaFin, the document in question is filed in BaFin’s database of securities prospectuses and information sheets where it can be freely accessed and downloaded by consumers.

More about the statutory minimum information and examination work carried out by BaFin in connection with the aforementioned documents can be found on the relevant webpages here.

Liability for the information contained in the prospectus lies with the offerors and parties responsible for the prospectus. The question of whether claims exist in a given case depends on a number of factors and must be separately examined in each individual case. However, BaFin is not in a position to conduct this individual examination. The contact points named below are available for advising investors on the correct procedure in such cases.

BaFin acts solely in the public interest and therefore does not provide legal advice or advice concerning your personal financial situation. You can contact a lawyer for this purpose. Advice can also be obtained from the consumer centres.

If you want to complain about a supervised company or issuer of securities or capital investment products, you can also contact BaFin. More information about the procedure for filing complaints at BaFin can be found here. BaFin’s consumer helpline is there to assist you with questions concerning supervised companies and consumer protection in the financial sector.

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