The Journal of Regulation - Newsletter n°24 - October 3rd 2011
04/10/2011| Thematic Report (Book): Les 100 mots de la Régulation (The 100 words of Regulation) |
| Thursday 1 September 2011, by Jean-Pierre Jouyet, President of the "Autorité des Marchés Financiers" (AMF) |
| In Les 100 mots de la régulation (“Regulation in 100 Words”), Marie-Anne Frison-Roche clearly and pedagogically identifies and defines the vocabulary of regulation by making sure, from the introduction, to firmly distinguish between regulation and rule making. Regulation is the maintenance of various balances between principles, rules, and economic and social realities. Rule making is the translation of a collective will emanating from lawmakers or judges, be they national, European, or international. |
| Thematic report (Finance): The American Department of Justice informed Nasdaq and ICE that it would reject their IPO on NYSE Euronext because of its anticompetitive effects, therefore the two companies abandoned their plan. |
| Friday 15 July 2011, by Marie-Anne Frison-Roche, Managing Editor and Director |
| In May 2011, Nasdaq OMX and its partner Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) were authorized by their respective boards of directors to perform a tender offer on the stock market operator NYSE Euronext. The American Department of Justice was worried about the consequences that this operation would have on competition, and despite the remedies proposed by the two companies, notified them that it would refuse the merger. On May 16, 2011, this potential refusal was enough for Nasdaq OMX and ICE to abandon their plan. This game of signals demonstrates the power of interregulation between merger review and the regulation of tender offers. |
Thematic Report (Energy): The French Energy Regulator can legitimately use its powers to organize Diffuse Effacement, but oversteps its mandate (ultra vires) when it mandates that intermediaries remunerate the energy supplier. |
| Monday 11 July 2011, by Paul Chapy, Senior Editor |
| The technique of “effacement diffus” [diffuse effacement] is when a number of electricity consumers agree beforehand to consume less electricity at certain times (effacement), which allows other consumers to use the network at peak hours. Corporate intermediaries arrange these diffuse effacements, thereby participating in the adjustment system vital to the security of the electricity distribution network. The Commission de Régulation de l’Energie (CRE – French energy regulator) organized the system of “diffuse effacement” even though this measure was not contained in statute. The Council of State’s Voltalis ruling, handed down on May 3, 2011, recognizes the CRE’s right to organize this system. But, it also deems that the regulator exceeded its powers by mandating that the corporate intermediaries organizing diffuse effacement remunerate the electricity provider. |
| Bibliographical Report (symposium): vers quelle régulation de l’audit faut-il aller ? (How should the Audit be regulated?) |
| Friday 8 July 2011, by Marie-Anne Frison-Roche, Managing Editor and Director |
| On May 20, 2011, a colloquium was held in Paris on the question
of How should the Audit be regulated?, organized by The Journal of
Regulation, l’Ecole de droit de la Sorbonne, and KPMG France, one
of the Journal’s privileged partners. The participants were
Jean-Luc Decornoy, Nathalie de Basaldua, Alain Couret, Marie-Anne
Frison-Roche, Christine Thin, Stephen Haddrill, Claude Cazes,
Etienne Wasmer, and Mara Cameran. The reflections and discussions
bore upon the European Commission’s Green Paper on Audit Policy.
The colloquium’s ambition was to discuss the methodological links
that must guide the future of the Audit, both in relation to
financial regulation and competition, and also to analyze what the
inspirations for audit reform should be, especially by using the
available economic studies. Each participant agreed that the most
important goal was to ensure that the audit is of very high
quality, and everything ought to converge towards this goal. |