ESMA 2025 Report on Marketing Requirements and Marketing Communications under the Regulation on Cross-Border Distribution of Funds Published

Summary

On 6 January 2026, the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) published its 2025 report on marketing requirements and marketing communications under the regulation on cross-border distribution of funds (the “Report”). The Report includes details provided by the national competent authorities (“NCAs”) to ESMA in 2025. The report is created by ESMA every second year, and it provides an overview of national laws, regulations and administrative provisions governing marketing requirements for Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (“UCITS”) and Alternative Investment Funds (“AIFs”) in all European Member States. ESMA will publish its next report in two years.

The Report includes references and summaries of national rules governing marketing requirements for UCITS and AIFs and provides useful guidance for UCITS management companies, Alternative Investment Fund Managers (“AIFMs”) and asset managers marketing UCITS and AIFs on a cross-border level across the European Union.

The main finding of this Report is that national rules regarding the marketing of funds have not been subject to any significant changes since 2023. Additionally, the 2025 Report includes statistical information on cross-border fund notification activities.

Marketing communications

In preparation for the Report, ESMA collected data from the NCAs via a questionnaire. ESMA asked the NCAs to provide an overview of their requests to amend marketing communications as required under the Regulation (EU) 2019/1156 on facilitating cross-border distribution of collective investment undertakings (the “Regulation”) as well as under Directive (EU) 2019/1160 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 amending Directives 2009/65/EC and 2011/61/EU with regard to cross-border distribution of collective investment undertakings (the “CBDF”). The NCAs were also asked to provide feedback on the most common regulatory breaches. For further background, the requirements of Article 4 of the Regulation apply to all marketing communications addressed to EU-based investors or potential investors in any fund (UCITS or AIFs).

The NCAs reported the following information to ESMA with regard to marketing communications:

1. the number of requests for amendments of marketing communications made on the basis of ex-ante verification, where applicable;
2. the number of requests for amendments and decisions taken on the basis of ex-post verifications, clearly distinguishing the most frequent breaches, including a description and the nature of those breaches;
3. a description of the most frequent breaches of the requirements for marketing communications as stipulated in Article 4 of the Regulation; and
4. one example of each of the breaches referred to in points (b) and (c).

The examples of breaches of requirements of Article 4 of the Regulation are included in Annex IV of the Report. These examples can be used as practical guidance when drafting or reviewing marketing communications and should be taken into consideration by the responsible UCITS management companies and AIFMs.

Statistical information

For the first time, the report includes statistics on cross-border fund marketing notifications in the European Union and identifies the main home and host Member States in the European Union. These statistics are derived from the records from ESMA’s database of cross-border fund marketing notifications. The ESMA Register for cross-border marketing of AIFs and UCITS, which was published in July 2022, is ESMA’s central database including information on registration dates of cross-border marketing of AIFs and UCITS.

Section 5 of the Report presents statistics on the notifications of cross-border marketing of investment funds. Luxembourg accounts for the largest share of outbound notifications with 59%, with a nearly even distribution between AIFs and UCITS. Ireland follows with 30%, where UCITS constitute the majority of notifications of cross-border marketing. Germany, Italy, France and Spain account for the highest number of inbound notifications, having more than 10,000 each, with UCITS representing the majority in each of these jurisdictions. UCITS account for 56% of total fund notifications, while AIFs represent the remaining 44%.

Next Steps

If you are marketing AIFs or UCITS in the European Union, it is important to ensure compliance with the Regulation, the CBDF and any marketing or communication requirements imposed by the relevant NCAs.

Contact us for a demonstration of our legaltech tools that can help you to stay compliant with the rules on cross-border marketing of investment funds.

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