Financial torts and EU private international law: will the search for the place of “financial damage” ever come to an end?

Abstract

The determination of jurisdiction and the applicable law concerning violations of financial law remains one of the most controversial subjects in EU private international law. Departing from its previously wayward case law regarding jurisdiction in disputes concerning purely financial losses, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has finally taken a more principled approach in its Verenigeng van Effectenbezitters (VEB) decision, concentrating jurisdiction for actions based on issuer liability for inaccurate disclosures in the courts of the Member States where the issuer “has complied, for the purposes of its listing on the stock exchange, with the statutory reporting obligations”. While the judgment marks a necessary step forward, this paper argues that a market-oriented rule, which the CJEU has thus far not fully embraced, for conferring jurisdiction in disputes concerning infringements of securities law needs to be further developed and consistently applied in determining the applicable law.