OFFERING SECURITIES FROM CURACAO AND ST. MAARTEN
About the obligation to publish a prospectus
The legal regulations in connection with the law providing for financial supervision are materially identical in Curaçao and Sint Maarten. For convenience sake we will mainly refer to Curaçao below.
The search for a prospectus requirement in the law on supervision will be in vain. The National Ordinance on the Supervision of Investment Institutions and Administrators (Landsverordening toezicht beleggingsinstellingen en administrateurs: ‘Ltba’) prohibits everybody in Section 3 subsection 1 from asking or obtaining in or from Curaçao funds or other assets in order to participate in an investment institution – which has not …
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STATUTORY FRAMEWORK FOR PROSPECTUS LIABILITY (II)
The Netherlands, Curaçao, St. Maarten and the BES-islands compared
The Netherlands
In the Netherlands there is a two-track law concerning prospectus liability as professor L. Timmerman calls it. There are two sets of rules supplementing the general doctrine of the wrongful act (Section 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code (‘BW-NL‘):
1. Misleading and comparative advertising (B2B)
Section 6:194 subsection 1 BW-NL:
“A person who with regard to goods or …
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STATUTORY FRAMEWORK FOR PROSPECTUS LIABILITY (I)
The Netherlands, Curaçao, St. Maarten and the BES-islands compared
That a prospectus must be approved (in the Netherlands and the BES Islands by the Authority for the Financial Markets, and in Curaçao and Sint Maarten by the Joint Central Bank of these countries) does not guarantee that the prospectus is not misleading. Therefore approval by the regulator does not entail a guarantee. The approval can be considered as an administrative approval contributing to better quality and more uniformity of the prospectuses.
A prospectus is an offer or an invitation to make an offer directed to the general public or to …
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WHEN IS A PROSPECTUS REQUIRED?
The Netherlands, Curaçao, St. Maarten and the BES-islands compared
The Netherlands
The legal system in the Netherlands has a European origin. We will not discuss this further here.* Chapter 5.1 of the Dutch Financial Supervision Act (Wet op het financieel toezicht: ‘Wft’) includes the rules for offering securities.
Section 5:2 Wft stipulates:
“It is forbidden in the Netherlands to offer securities to the general public or to allow securities to be traded in a regulated market situated or operating in the Netherlands unless – with regard to the offering or the admission – a prospectus is generally available which has …
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PROSPECTUS LIABILITY AND PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW
The Netherlands, Curaçao, St. Maarten and the BES-islands
The Netherlands
Since 11 January 2009 Rome II* has been applicable in the Netherlands with regard to the applicable law on non-contractual obligations. Rome II is not applicable in Curaçao, St. Maarten, Aruba and the BES Islands. This observation obviously does not exclude a certain reflex effect.
Rome II applies to events causing loss occurring after 11 January 2009 (Section 31 Rome II). Non-contractual obligations, insofar as they are relevant here, involve obligations arising from (legal) obligations to pay compensation pursuant to a wrongful act (tort).
In my opinion prospectus …
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PROSPECTUS LIABILITY IN THE NETHERLANDS
World Online is the landmark case
Undoubtedly the most important ruling with regard to prospectus liability is the ruling of the Dutch Supreme Court (Hoge Raad) in the case of World Online (WOL) of 27 November 2009 (JOR 2010, 43 with annotation by Karel Frielink).
World Online was a European Internet Service Provider and its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2000 proved a disaster. According to the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad of 22 July 2000: “World Online had all the ingredients to become a conflagration with prices going through the roof, as they say in stock exchange folklore.”
After the …
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