Introduction
Marketing of investment products becomes an increasingly complex area for financial providers. Financial instruments sold to the public and admitted to trading on a regulated market or other trading venues are strictly regulated at European and national level in order to avoid mis-selling risk on the part of providers and excessive risk-taking on the part of investors. Poor presentation of the risks and payoff profile of the product, retail clients’ lack of familiarity with the financial instrument because of the underlying assets used, language that must appear in marketing materials are certain only of the areas for which detailed rules were adopted at European and national level.
Marketing, defined as the presentation of a financial instrument through different means (advertising, direct marketing, placement, advice, etc.) may be realised by an investment services provider, a financial investment adviser, or a direct marketer of investment services with a view to encouraging a client to buy that instrument.
Depending on the category of the investor (retail, professional, eligible counterparty) and on the category of financial instrument (complex or non-complex), the relevant capital markets law differentiates in a substantive way. Furthermore, apart from the capital markets law, consumer protection law also applies to retail investors, such as unfair commercial practices legislation.
Dr Christina K. Livada, Lecturer of Commercial Law, Special Legal Advisor of the Hellenic Association of Banking and Capital Markets
Dr Christina Livada is a Lecturer of commercial law at the Faculty of Law of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Her main fields of specialization are company law, public and private banking and capital markets law, as well as consumer protection law. She is the author of several books and articles in the abovementioned fields. Christina Livada is working for the last fifteen years at the Hellenic Bank Association as a Special Legal Advisor (currently on a part-time basis), responsible for the regulatory issues pertaining to banking, capital markets and consumer protection law. She is a member of the corporate governance Working Group of the Hellenic Corporate Governance Council for the review of the Greek Corporate Governance Code. She is also member of the Hellenic Association of Banking and Capital Markets Law and responsible for the content of the scientific Review Financial Law.
She obtained her PhD from the Faculty of Law of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 2004. In 1996, she obtained her D.E.A. in International Law (International Private Law and Commercial Law) from the Panthéon-Assas University (Paris II). In 2000 she was awarded a research scholarship from the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law in Lausanne. In 1995 she completed her undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Law of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
