A briefing issued earlier this month by law firm Linklaters entitled “MAR one year on: time for listed companies to reflect?” suggests that the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) has “so far failed in its aim to introduce a harmonised framework across Europe as there are divergences in practice even within the U.K.” according to counsel Lucy Reeve. “There are places in the rules that are open to more than one possible interpretation,” she continued, “so it’s only natural that, while the market settles down and gets used to the new regime, we will see different approaches being taken. One relates to the treatment of financial results in line with market expectation. Most U.K. issuers are not labelling these as inside information, although a number are. In some other member states, such as the Netherlands, the opposite is true and more issuers do label them as inside information.”
