1. The Isle of Man is a Crown Dependency. It does not form part of the United Kingdom and is not a member of the European Union (EU).
2. The Isle of Man has its own legal system. Manx legislation can be accessed via the Isle of Man Legislation site.
Whilst not an EU member state, the Isle of Man implemented parts of the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD 2) into its own legislation to maintain it's place as a member of the SEPA scheme. When it came to data protection, the Isle of Man had an EU adequacy decision and decided to maintain that by enacting new legislation for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Manx property transactions trigger registration in the Isle of Man Land Registry.
3. The Isle of Man has its own Financial Services regulator called the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority (IOMFSA). Corporate entities incorporated in the Isle of Man are registered at the Companies Registry. The Companies Registry is made up of 8 registries with their own legislation. Fees and filing obligations dependant upon the entity type.
4. The Isle of Man has a financial services ombudsman scheme established under their Financial Services Act 2008. The scheme is known as the Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme for the Isle of Man.
5. The Isle of Man has an independent authority that deals with data protection and freedom of information called the Information Commissioner or Barrantagh Fysseree. The Information Commissioner's final GDPR Newsletter was issued on 1 August 2018 when the new data protection law came into operation.
Morton Fraser does not advise on Manx law but our teams are happy to work alongside Manx law firms.
