RETAIL INVESTOR PROTECTION IN THE HELLENIC LEGAL ORDER UNDER THE LIGHT OF EU LAW.

Abstract

This thesis seeks to examine the status of retail investors’ protection in the Hellenic legal order, under the light of EU law; focusing on investment firm failure as a result of tort, it investigates whether the EU and Hellenic normative systems aim at and achieve effective protection of retail investors. It explores in particular the issue of ex lege liability of compensation schemes and the issue of non-contractual liability of supervisory authorities. In case of intermediary failure the minimum protection is awarded by EU law in the form of ex lege compensation does not establish a coherent system, and the legal status of retail investors vis-à-vis depositors remains uncertain in many respects. The ECJ has denied application of the acquis on individual protection to depositors in Peter Paul, with regard to non-contractual liability of supervisors, but the application of its reasoning in the area of investment services is doubtful. The new EU finance law and architecture does not fundamentally affect these conclusions. On the other hand, retail investor protection may validly be considered as an autonomous aim of finance law in the Hellenic legal order. Despite inefficiencies connected also to the structure of relevant EU rules transposed, and despite the incoherence of the various national rules on the liquidation of financial intermediaries and the operation of compensation schemes –in particular with regard to claim verification– yet effective protection of retail investors may a priori be achieved through the existing national judicial mechanism. This dynamic is demonstrated by recent case-law on protection of retail investors in the context of ex lege compensation; yet it seems to lessen in the area of non-contractual liability of supervisors. Even though ex lege immunity of supervisors has been denied by case-law, the effectiveness of protection has been mitigated by the strict substantive criteria formulated.