Legal

The iSHARE Trust Framework is underpinned by legal agreements to which all participants (both Adhering Parties and Certified Parties) need to adhere. This section contains the relevant legal aspects of the Framework:

Title

Agreement with version

Terms-Of-Use (05-03-2025)

Accession Agreement for Adhering Parties

Adhering-Parties-Accession-Agreement (05-03-2025)

Accession Agreement for Certified Parties

Certified-Parties-Accession-Agreement (05-03-2025)

Legal Context

This section clarifies which rules and regulations may apply to Framework's participants, and provides information and formats that participants can use to improve their understanding. This section does not aim to be all-encompassing in the sense that it covers all the rules and regulations applicable to the participants, it aims to provide useful information to the Trust Framework's participants. Please note that depending on an organisation's context and specific focus, different rules and regulations might apply, both stemming from national and international law, which might not be mentioned in this section.

Terms of Use

The Terms of Use are an appendix to and integral part of the Accession Agreement. The Terms of Use further define the rights and obligations of the various roles within the iSHARE Trust Framework. The Terms of Use provide a uniform set of rules for both the participants and the Scheme Owner, thereby fostering a level playing field between all parties involved.

The Terms of Use are drafted in such a way that data can be exchanged by participants even if they have no other contractual arrangement in place. In that case, the default requirements as set forth in the Terms of Use govern their legal relationship. This includes the (license) conditions that apply to the exchange of data. But the Terms of Use leave room for participants to derogate from or further detail the provisions of the Terms of Use on a bilateral basis. However, there will be certain requirements that participants should comply with at any time, and from which they will not be able to deviate. These are the requirements that deal with the proper functioning of the iSHARE Trust Framework, such as each party's responsibility to safeguard the security of its IT-systems (articles 3.5 and 4.1).

Furthermore, the Terms of Use include a number of annexes, amongst which the pre-defined conditions of exchange, the iSHARE Trust Framework and the standards and specifications.

Accession Agreement

Adhering Parties

The main contract between the participant and the iSHARE Scheme Owner. This main contract refers to the terms of use, including all specifications, to which all participants must abide. After signing this Accession Agreement, an organisation becomes a participant of the data space/iSHARE network as an Adhering Party.