AMF France v. X and A (insider trading, 2017)

Dismissed

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 5, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, in a single reading of the French decision; an independent second reading of 60 of the AMF records agreed on every field for 54 and on the core fields for 59. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

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In September 2017 the AMF Commission des sanctions put a shareholder company, published as X, and its chairman, published as A, out of the case on a charge of selling 142,000 shares of a listed company on the eve of weak half-year results. It found it not established that the information was inside information.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

The 2nd section of the Commission des sanctions heard the case on 7 September 2017 and decided it on 29 September 2017. The AMF's inquiry, opened in January 2015, followed a declaration that a company published as X had sold a block of shares in listed company Y. On notifications dated 24 June 2016, the single grievance was against X and its chairman A.

On Friday 26 September 2014 A sold, for X, a block of 142,000 Y shares at the day's average price of 42.69 euros. X was Y's long-standing largest shareholder and sat on its supervisory board, and A presided over X and over Y's management board. That evening at 17:45 Y published half-year results showing a negative current operating result of 9.19 million euros, 67% worse than a year earlier. The AMF alleged that the sale used inside information about those results, which fell well short of market expectations.

The Commission found it was not established that a reasonable investor would have been likely to use the half-year results information at the time of the sale, and it put both X and A out of the case. No financial penalty was imposed, and the decision was published in anonymised form.

The record is a dismissal of the charge rather than a finding of wrongdoing. It does not show how the sale was decided, and it does not show whether the AMF's board challenged the decision.

This library tags the matter as insider trading. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the decision.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Insider trading — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2017-09-29 Commission des sanctions decision

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• AMF decision page
• Decision (PDF, French)

The linked release is published by the issuing regulator under its own terms. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added October 5, 2026. submit a correction.