The law of 10 August 2018[1] has transposed the Directive (EU) 2016/97 of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union of 20 January 2016 on insurance distribution (the “IDD Directive”) into Luxembourg law.
The law of 17 April 2018 on key investor documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (the “2018 Law”) was published in the Mémorial A on 19 April 2018 and entered into force on 23 April 2018.
As a reminder, on 1 January 2018, persons and entities advising on or selling a PRIIP(not benefiting from the grandfathering period like UCITS funds or AIFs issuing a UCITS KIID) to retail investors in the EU will be required to deliver a PRIIP KID to their retail investors before they invest in a PRIIP.
Level 3 and 4 measures relating to the Commission Delegated Regulation on Key Information Documents (“KIDs”) for Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (“PRIIPs”) were published at the beginning of July.
On 12 April 2017, the level 2 measures with regard to the PRIIPS1 Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2014/1286 ) were published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
These level 2 measures are Regulatory Technical Standards ("RTS") and, as a reminder, the first draft was rejected by the European Parliament in September 2016.
On 18 January 2017, the Court of Appeal of Luxembourg dealing with commercial matters reversed the decision of the 15th chamber of the District Court of Luxembourg dated 1 April 2015, in relation to the permitted distribution of dividends to certain policyholders of Excell Life International S.A., a Luxembourg life-insurance company put in judicial liquidation on 12 July 2012 (“Excell Life”).
On 8 March 2017, the European Commission adopted a Commission Delegated Regulation, including Annexes (PRIIPs RTS), supplementing the Regulation on key information documents (KIDs) for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (PRIIPs Regulation). The PRIIPs RTS provide for regulatory technical standards regarding the presentation, content, review and revision of KIDs and the conditions for fulfilling the requirement to provide KIDs.
In the interests of ensuring a smooth implementation and to ensure legal certainty for the industry, the European Commission has proposed today to postpone the implementation of the PRIIPs Regulation by 12 months until 1 January 2018. This will require an amendment to the PRIIPs Regulation for that purpose and therefore the approval of the European Parliament and the European Council.
ECON (the EU Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs) voted (on 1rst September) to reject the delegated regulation (PRIIPs RTS) as proposed by the Commission on 30 June 2016. ECON claims that the proposed PRIIPs RTS contain inadequacies which could lead to a different interpretation throughout the Member States and that there is a risk that the retail investor would be misled by the information to be disclosed in the PRIIPs KID. Thus the primary goal of the PRIIPs Regulation (i.e. to protect retail investors) would not be met.
On November 11th 2015 the Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (“ESAs”), consisting of the European Banking Authority (“EBA”), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (“EIOPA”) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”), published its Joint Consultation Paper on Key Information Documents (“KIDs”) for Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (“PRIIPs”) (the “Consultation Paper”).
