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This article offers a critical economic analysis of the asset eligibility rule of the Plan d’épargne en actions (more commonly known as PEA) for collective investment schemes. The aim of this regulated savings product is to encourage French households to invest in European equities in order to reduce those companies’ financing costs. The article analyses to what extent the eligibility rules for collective investment funds correspond to the desired objectives. It will be shown that the use of some structuring techniques (especially what is called synthetic replication) makes it possible to comply with the rules without necessarily achieving the stated goals. More broadly, this article encourages us to rethink the effectiveness of traditional regulatory measures in the context of growing financial innovations being used as regulatory arbitrage tools. The article concludes by explaining the need to adapt such rules and practices so that they can achieve the stated objectives. JEL classification: G18, G23, G51, H26, H31.