Crowdfunding - Croatian legal perspective and comparison to other sources of financing

Abstract

Crowdfunding is a new way of financing ideas by raising small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Most countries do not have special legislation governing crowdfunding but some countries like the United States, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Germany have amended their legislation with provisions specifically designed for crowdfunding. The first aim of this research was to examine which existing legislation could be applied to crowdfunding as well as to review whether there is a need in the Croatian system to introduce new legislation designed specifically for crowdfunding issues. The second research aim was to compare crowdfunding with other sources of financing in order to decide whether it can represent a substitute for them or only a possible complementary instrument.