Regulations: Concepts and definitions

In Datamaran, regulations and initiatives include both legally binding requirements (mandatory regulations) and voluntary frameworks (voluntary initiatives). To help you quickly prioritize what matters most, we apply consistent definitions and tags across the platform.

A shared set of definitions makes it easier to:

• Prioritize the most business-critical developments faster

• Compare regulations consistently across jurisdictions and topics

• Reduce noise when filtering, monitoring, and reporting

Key Regulations

A regulation is marked as Key when it meets a defined number of essential and impact elements. This classification considers legal, commercial, and ESG elements.

Essential elements

Essential elements refer to fundamental components or characteristics of a regulation that are necessary for its existence or functioning. These elements typically form the backbone of the legal framework or provide the framework under which organizations act, work, or report.

Impact elements

Impact elements denote aspects of a regulation that have significant consequences or effects, particularly on businesses, various stakeholders, or the broader market.

How the “Key” threshold works

• The mandatory regulations should meet two (2) impact elements and one (1) essential element.

• The voluntary regulations should meet one (1) impact element and one (1) essential element.
  
  

Why this matters

Marking regulations as Key helps you:

• Prioritize the developments most likely to affect your business

• Focus attention on regulations with the strongest combination of foundation (essential) and consequence (impact)

• Reduce noise when monitoring large volumes of regulatory change

Regulation fields and definitions

This section explains the most common fields you’ll see on a regulation record in Datamaran.

Title and original title

The Title is the official name of the regulation in English, while original title refers to the name of the regulation in its original language when it was not provided in English.

Policy Maker/Regulator

Policy Maker/Regulator is the entity that releases the regulation.

Lifecycle

Lifecycle includes some or all of the following dates:

• Introduction date: refers to the earliest date of the text, either its proposal, adoption, or signature (applicable to voluntary and mandatory regulations).

• Entry into force: refers to the official date of commencement of the regulation.

  • For mandatory regulations, it refers to the date it becomes legally binding.

  • In the case of a voluntary initiative, the date the initiative was published or released is considered the ‘commencement date’.

• Upgraded version of the text: refers to the last update to the text (for voluntary initiatives).

• Legislative amendment: refers to the effective date of the last amendment to the text, or the latest stage in the law-making process (applicable to mandatory regulations).

Status of the Initiative/regulation

Status of the Initiative/regulation refers to its current stage:

• Active refers to regulations that have already entered into force or are applicable.

• Proposed refers to regulations that are not yet in force, such as proposals or bills.

Enforcement Level

Enforcement Level indicates whether the initiative is mandatory, voluntary, or conditionally mandatory.

• Mandatory regulations include binding requirements, commonly referred to as hard law.

• Conditionally mandatory initiatives are regulations that become mandatory when certain criteria are met, such as ratifying a treaty or belonging to a specific group or association.

• Voluntary initiatives are not binding and are commonly known as soft law.

Application Scope

Application Scope indicates the type of companies the regulation applies to:

• Private company refers to companies that are not listed.

• Public company refers to listed companies.

• State-owned company refers to companies owned by the State or partially owned by the State.

• Other applies when the regulation applies not only to companies but also to other types of entities, such as governmental entities, individuals, or organisations.

Sector of interest

Sector of interest indicates what industries are concerned by the regulation according to the SICS classification system.

Disclosure Requirement

Disclosure Requirement indicates if the regulation contains corporate disclosure requirements.

Sanctions

Sanctions refer to any type of sanctions or penalties mentioned in the text, including:

• Administrative Sanctions

• Civil Fines

• Criminal Sanctions

• Penalties

• Specific Performance

• Damages

• Injunctions

Topics Referenced

Topics Referenced are topics regulated in the regulation according to Datamaran’s ontology.

Consultation

Consultation accounts for initiatives issued to collect feedback from the relevant stakeholders on the proposed content of a future rule. They remain “active” in our database regardless of whether the consultation period has finished and are superseded only when the final rule/proposal is issued.

Description

Each regulation is provided with a description (short summary of the regulation).

Related regulations

Regulations are tagged according to their relationship with other initiatives in our database. Through the tag related regulations, the regulatory database informs whether an initiative amends, implements, transposes, or repeals another initiative or vice versa.

• Amends: Indicates that the regulation modifies the text of a different regulation to which it is linked.

• Transposes: Indicates that a regulation incorporates an EU Directive into the national law of an EU Member State.

• Implements: Refers to the process of ensuring that a regulation is applied, enforced, and functioning in practice.

• Relates to: used to indicate that a regulation is linked to another regulation, or that it builds upon a related legislative proposal, initiative, etc.

• Repeals: indicates that a regulation no longer has effect.