Art. 66 Obligation to act honestly, fairly and professionally in the best interests of clients | MiCA regulation | MiCA

This article sets out the overarching conduct of business obligations that crypto-asset service providers must follow when dealing with clients.

It establishes the foundational principle of acting honestly, fairly and professionally in clients' best interests, and layers on top of this a series of specific transparency and disclosure requirements — covering communications, risk warnings, pricing information, links to white papers, and environmental impact disclosures.

The environmental disclosure requirement, which mandates publication of information on the climate and other adverse impacts of the consensus mechanisms used by crypto-assets, is backed by a mandate for ESMA and EBA to develop regulatory technical standards on how that information should be presented.

Important points:

Act honestly, fairly and professionally in the best interests of clients and prospective clients, and ensure all communications — including marketing — are fair, clear and not misleading.
Publish pricing, costs and fees policies prominently on your website, and provide clients with hyperlinks to relevant crypto-asset white papers when operating trading platforms, exchanging crypto-assets, providing advice, or managing portfolios.
Publish information on the principal adverse climate and environmental impacts of the consensus mechanisms used by the crypto-assets for which you provide services, in a prominent place on your website.

1. Crypto-asset service providers shall act honestly, fairly and professionally in accordance with the best interests of their clients and prospective clients.
1. Crypto-asset service providers shall provide their clients with information that is fair, clear and not misleading, including in marketing communications, which shall be identified as such. Crypto-asset service providers shall not, deliberately or negligently, mislead a client in relation to the real or perceived advantages of any crypto-assets.
1. Crypto-asset service providers shall warn clients of the risks associated with transactions in crypto-assets.
2. When operating a trading platform for crypto-assets, exchanging crypto-assets for funds or other crypto-assets, providing advice on crypto-assets or providing portfolio management on crypto-assets, crypto-asset service providers shall provide their clients with hyperlinks to any crypto-asset white papers for the crypto-assets in relation to which they are providing those services.
1. Crypto-asset service providers shall make their policies on pricing, costs and fees publicly available, in a prominent place on their website.
1. Crypto-asset service providers shall make publicly available, in a prominent place on their website, information related to the principal adverse impacts on the climate and other environment-related adverse impacts of the consensus mechanism used to issue each crypto-asset in relation to which they provide services. That information may be obtained from the crypto-asset white papers.
1. ESMA, in cooperation with EBA, shall develop draft regulatory technical standards on the content, methodologies and presentation of information referred to in paragraph 5 in respect of the sustainability indicators in relation to adverse impacts on the climate and other environment‐related adverse impacts.
2. When developing the draft regulatory technical standards referred to in the first subparagraph, ESMA shall consider the various types of consensus mechanisms used to validate crypto-asset transactions, their incentive structures and the use of energy, renewable energy and natural resources, the production of waste and greenhouse gas emissions. ESMA shall update the regulatory technical standards in the light of regulatory and technological developments.
3. ESMA shall submit the draft regulatory technical standards referred to in the first subparagraph to the Commission by 30 June 2024.
4. Power is delegated to the Commission to supplement this Regulation by adopting the regulatory technical standards referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph in accordance with Articles 10 to 14 of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010.

Article 66 Obligation to act honestly, fairly and professionally in the best interests of clients

Relevant recitals