GERMANY: BaFIN Publish Fine Guidance II for Breaches of WpHG Disclosures

Thursday March 30 2017

BaFIN has published supplementary guidance to the WpHG Fine Guidance II in response to significantly increased sanctions being made available for breaches of ad-hoc disclosures, voting rights announcements and financial reporting obligation under the Securities Market Act (WpHG).

The guidelines are subdivided into a general and a special section. The General Part describes the scope and general principles of metering and the Special Section deals with specific information on the calculation of fines.

The fine for breaching disclosure requirements under the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG) has fundamentally changed as a result of the Implementation Act to the Transparency Directive (IATD), which specifies varying maximum amounts depending on whether those responsible for the breach are natural or legal persons.

E.g. Prior to the amendments introduced by the IATD, BaFIN could impose fine of up to EUR 200,000 for natural and legal persons who breached the obligation to make financial disclosures. BaFin can now impose a fine of up to EUR 2 million for natural and legal persons OR up to ten million euro for legal entities, which can be increased further to 5% of sales or revenue if this represents a higher amount for disclosure breaches of WpHG obligations.

Please follow the link at the top of the page for the Guidelines.