ESMA_QA_2708
Status: ✅ Answer Published
Link to ESMA Q&A tool: https://www.esma.europa.eu/publications-data/questions-answers/2708
Regulatory Context
Regulation : MIF2
Level 1 Regulation: Directive 2014/65/EU - Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II)
Level 2 Regulation: Directive 2017/593 - MiFID II Delegated Directive
Level 3 Regulation: No information available
Topic: Inducements
Subject Matter: Inducements
Question
Submission Date: 03 December 2025
When an investment firm pays a third party (e.g law firms, accounting firms) any commission in connection with the provision of an investment service or ancillary service to the client must ensure that all the conditions set out in Article 24(9) of Directive 2014/65/EU and requirements set out in paragraphs 2-5 are met at all times. One of the requirements is that the fee and commission shall be considered to be designed to enhance the quality of the relevant service to the client if it is justified by the provision of an additional or higher level service to the relevant client, proportional to the level of inducements received. Which is responsible to enhance the quality of the relevant service to the client? The investment firm or the third party (e.g the law firms, the accounting firms)
ESMA Answer
Answer Date: 31-03-2026
Dear Sir, Thank you for contacting ESMA. The selection of questions to be developed into policy Q&As is done according to a number of criteria, which include the following:
Type of stakeholder: Questions received from investors’ and regulated firms’ associations, will be prioritised over questions from individual firms. Level of public attention: Topics receiving a higher number of questions will have a higher priority. Relevance of the issue: Questions addressing matters with high market impact, important legal risks and significant cross-border effects will have a higher priority.
We would like to inform you that your suggested question does not appear to be amongst the ones considered of higher priority, at least at this stage. This means that, in view of the number of questions received by ESMA, we are unable to provide you with any further feedback to your question, for the moment. Nonetheless, we would like to add that as third parties receiving payments may not be in scope of the regulation, it is the investment firm’s responsibility to ensure that it complies with Article 24 of MiFID II. We thank you for your input and invite you to monitor our website where we will continue to publish further Q&As, and other forms of guidance, with the purpose of ensuring the consistent and effective day-to-day application of Union law within ESMA’s remit. Kind regards, ESMA
This document was automatically extracted from the ESMA EMIR Q&A database.