An appeal may be lodged against the administrative fine order.

Update (4 October 2023):

The administrative fine order is final and binding.

Managers’ transactions

Persons discharging managerial responsibilities at an issuer, as well as persons closely associated with them, are required to notify the issuer and BaFin of any transactions conducted on their own account in securities and other financial instruments of that issuer (own account transactions) no later than three business days after the date of the transaction. The issuer must then make public the information contained in this notification.

It is important for several reasons that own account transactions be notified and made public without delay: the notification requirement is intended to prevent persons subject to the requirement from gaining an advantage when trading in securities and other financial instruments due to their privileged access to information. The notification requirement therefore contributes to the prevention of market abuse and in particular insider dealing. The chances of such transactions being discovered are increased through greater transparency with regard to managers’ transactions. In addition, such notifications provide BaFin with a further opportunity to monitor the capital market.

Managers or persons closely associated with them that fail to notify the issuer and BaFin of an own account transaction or that fail to submit this notification within the prescribed period are in violation of Article 19(1) of the MAR. BaFin may impose administrative fines on persons that fail to comply with this requirement. Fines of up to 500,000 euros can be imposed on natural persons.

Voting rights notification requirements

Shareholders must notify the issuer and BaFin within four trading days if their voting rights meet certain thresholds.

They are required to use a binding notification form for their voting rights notification. This is set out in section 12 (1) of the German Securities Trading Reporting Regulation (Wertpapierhandelsanzeigeverordnung – WpAV).

If parties subject to the notification requirement fail to notify the issuer and BaFin within the prescribed period that their shares have exceeded or fallen below certain thresholds, they violate section 33 (1) sentence 1 of the WpHG. BaFin may impose an administrative fine for failure to comply with this obligation. Fines of up to 2 million euros can be imposed on natural persons.

The obligation to submit voting rights notifications helps to ensure the transparency of the capital market. The aim is to make Germany as a financial centre more attractive in the face of international competition and to enhance investor confidence in the stable functioning of the German stock market.