Brussels, 15/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Commission has decided to formally ask the Spanish Government to amend national rules on company law. The Commission believes this discriminatory treatment is an infringement of the principle of equal treatment of shareholders and of the “pre-emption” rights accorded to shareholders under the Second Company Law Directive (Article 42 and Article 29 respectively). This law allows a company quoted on the stock exchange, which is increasing its capital by issuing new shares, to refuse existing shareholders priority to by the new shares and sell them at a third of a price lower than their value on the stock market. As a result of this exemption, the holdings of existing shareholders may be unduly “diluted” (reduced as a proportion of the company's total shares), because shares may be offered to other parties at a discount.