Going Dutch: Catch-All Insider Trading

In the Netherlands new legislation has come into force in order to deal with insider trading. The legislator followed a new strategy. This time, instead of a provision with well-defined criteria, a sort of a catch all-provision was created. The aim was to avoid difficulties in proving the offence. As a consequence, a new problem has arisen: usual and accepted behaviour on the stock markets, such as exercising a green shoe option, is now within the ambit of the penalisation. The Dutch legislator has thus created some exceptions. These developments are analysed in the paper.