Vol 15 (2018) - Issue 2

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About the Accuracy of the Information Owed to the Market by French Listed Companies in Distress

Last November, the Sanctions Commission of the French Financial Markets Authority, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, or AMF, ruled that a company listed on Euronext Paris (the 'Company') and its managing director (the 'MD') had failed to comply with their statutory duty not to disseminate false or misleading information to the market further to the sale of the Company’s loss making ERP business. By way of sanction, the Sanctions Commission (the 'Commission') ordered them to respectively pay EUR 30,000 and EUR 10,000 in damages. These financial sanctions were mild considering the maximum possible penalty of EUR 100 million set out in the French Financial and Monetary Code (the 'FMC'). The author provides more insight as to the facts which led to the ruling (the 'Ruling') and guidelines in order to strengthen immunity from, or lower such sanctions.