Short sale: Decision by EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) and the European Markets Authority (ESMA)

Due to the current outbreak of the COVID-19 and the prevailing market situation, EFTA's surveillance Authority (ESA) has by decision today March 16th 2020 ("Decision"), in accordance with the decision by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) of today and the EEA agreement Annex 29, no. 29f cf. the EU Short Sale Regulation 236/2012 (SSR) article 28 (1) litra a, decided to temporarily lower the threshold for notifying the relevant competent authorities of net short positions.

In accordance with the Decision article 2:

• A natural or legal person who has a net short position in relation to the issued share capital of a company that has its shares admitted to trading on a regulated market shall notify the relevant competent authority where the position reaches or falls below a percentage that equals 0.1% of the issued share capital of the company concerned and each 0.1% above that threshold.
• Please note that the same notification requirements applies for equity certificates cf. the Norwegian Securities Trading Act section 3-14 (3)
• The Decision enters into force immediately upon its publication on ESA’s website on March 16th 2020, and is valid for three months.

For further information and details please review the following information from ESA and ESMA: 

• EFTA Surveillance Authority Decision 16.03.2020
• ESMA press release 16.03.2020: ESMA requires net short position holders to report positions of 0.1 % and above

Please note:

In the event of conflict, the above information and the information in the decisions, will prevail other information on Finanstilsynet's webpages regarding the threshold under SSR article 5.