Obligation to notify a restriction on the choice of audit firm

Under Article 16(6) of Regulation (EU) No. 537/2014, which came into force on 17 June 2016, this obligation to notify applies to all companies or institutions classified as PIEs. Under Section 1(1)(I) of the Audit Firms Supervision Act, the following specific companies and institutions are classified as PIEs:

• a legal entity established in the Netherlands under Dutch law whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market, as defined in Section 1:1 of the Financial Supervision Act;

• a bank having its registered office in the Netherlands, as defined in Section 1:1 of the Financial Supervision Act, to which a licence has been issued under that Act;

• a central credit institution having its registered office in the Netherlands, as defined in Section 1:1 of the Financial Supervision Act, to which a licence has been issued under that Act;

• an insurer as defined in Section 1:1 of the Financial Supervision Act having its registered office in the Netherlands, not being a limited-risk insurer as defined in that section;

• large pension funds, as defined in Article 35a(5)(b) of the Pension Act and Occupational Pension Scheme (Obligatory Membership) Act Implementation Decree;

• grid operators, as defined in Section 1(1)(k) of the Electricity Act 1998 or Section 1(1)(e) of the Gas Act;

• housing corporations (approved institutions) with more than 5,000 rental units;

• the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and the National Library of the Netherlands.

The notification must contain the following information:

• the contact details of the person making the notification;

• the identifying details of the company;

• the names of the third party or parties concerned, as specified in their articles of association, and, if known, the names of the persons involved;

• a description of the attempt by a third party to use a contractual clause to restrict the choice of an audit firm to perform the legal auditing of the PIE or to influence the decision in some other inappropriate way.