EU Crowdfunding Regulation: Crowdfunding The Future?

Since their appearance in the late 1990s, investment and financing activities using crowdfunding platforms have been subject to fragmented and diverging pieces of regulation throughout the European Union (EU) and thus impeding access to alternative financing opportunities for small businesses.

However, there may be a silver lining, since as from 10 November 2021, the crowdfunding industry benefits from the provisions of the European Regulation 2020/1503 of 7 October 2020 on European crowdfunding service providers for business (the "Regulation"), which sets out a European legal framework for the crowdfunding industry, aiming to improve access to funding for project owners¹ and facilitating the cross-border offer of services for crowdfunding platforms.