SEC v. App Annie Inc. and Bertrand Schmitt (2021)

Settled

Checked against the primary document on October 3, 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, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. 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.

Report an error in this record (sec-app-annie-inc-and-bertrand-schmitt-2021) by email

In September 2021 the SEC settled with app-data seller App Annie and its co-founder Bertrand Schmitt over misrepresenting how its alternative data was derived to induce trading firms to subscribe. The company agreed to a $10 million penalty and Schmitt to $300,000.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency	SEC
Release number	34-92975
Date filed	2021-09-14
Date resolved	2021-09-14
Status	settled
Criminal parallel	No
Defendants	App Annie Inc. (entity) ; Bertrand Schmitt (individual)
Cited as charged or alleged	Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques

What was ordered

Civil penalty: $10.3m
Disgorgement: —
Prejudgment interest: —
Total relief: $10.3m
Alleged gain: —

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 Securities and Exchange Commission instituted and settled the proceeding on September 14, 2021.

The order finds App Annie made material misrepresentations about its data and used other deceptive practices to win and keep subscribers who traded on it, violating Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5. It does not find that anyone traded on inside information.

The insider-trading tag was removed. The two respondents were previously stored as one entity and the penalty as the company's alone; the stored figure is the sum of both.

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 release.

Timeline

2021-09-14 Administrative proceeding instituted (cease-and-desist)

Primary documents

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

SEC order

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.