The Accepted Market Practices Regulation FMSA came into effect on 13 May 2011. Under this Regulation, "liquidity agreements" are exempted from the prohibition on market manipulation. These agreements enable issuers to trade in their own shares through a third party to promote regular trading in these shares and to prevent price fluctuations. The option to exempt certain categories of transactions or trade orders from the prohibition on market manipulation is based on Section 5:58 paragraph 3 of the Financial Markets Supervision Act ("FMSA"). The Market Abuse Decree FMSA provides that the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets ("AFM") will regularly review the categories of transactions or trade orders for which an exemption is justified and will advise the Minister of Finance on this. The European Securities and Markets Authority ("ESMA") maintains a list on its website of accepted market practices in the various member states.
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