Very interesting post at Oxford Business Law Blog:
France’s financial market regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (‘AMF’), banned short selling in 92 specified equities for a one-day period, beginning on March 16, 2020 and ending on March 17, 2020. So did the Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (‘CONSOB’), the governmental authority of the Italian stock market, by introducing a temporary ban on taking or increasing net short positions in respect of 85 companies’ shares admitted for trading on the Mercato Telematico Azionario (‘MTA’), the Italian regulated stock market. Similar actions were taken by the relevant authorities in Spain, Belgium, Greece, and Austria. In these countries, short-selling bans have been viewed as a possible tool to curb the adverse consequences on stock market liquidity and investors’ confidence. However, although subject to a similar economic scenario, other European countries, such as Germany and the United Kingdom, did not ban short-selling. All bans expired or were lifted on May 18, 2020. The purpose of our study is to examine whether the temporary short-selling bans in the EU during the COVID-19 crisis have achieved the market supervisors’ goals and, more generally, if similar bans are effective and desirable. Our conclusion is that they have are not.
Go read the whole thing, but the bottom line is that countries that banned short selling didn't do their economies or their investors much good.
