THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009 on credit rating agencies [OJ L 302, 17.11.2009, p. 1.], and in particular the third subparagraph of Article 21(4a) thereof,

Whereas:

(1) Article 11(3) and point 2 of Part II of Section E of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 require a credit rating agency to annually disclose to ESMA the list of fees charged to each client for individual credit ratings and any ancillary services, as well as its pricing policy, including the fees structure and pricing criteria in relation to credit ratings for different asset classes. It is essential to provide for the technical details regarding the content to be reported and the format to be used by credit rating agencies in order to comply with their obligations and to allow ESMA to exercise its ongoing supervisory powers.

(2) In order to mitigate conflicts of interest and facilitate fair competition in the credit rating market, ESMA should ensure that pricing policies, procedures and ultimately fees charged by credit rating agencies to clients are not discriminatory. Differences in fees charged for the same type of service should be justifiable by a difference in the actual costs in providing the service to different clients. Moreover, the fees charged for credit rating services to a given issuer should not depend on the results or outcome of the work performed.