• FR AMF issued decision of 19 July 2024, imposing €150,000 financial penalty on Parrot for market manipulation breaches, by disseminating false or misleading information.

Summary

• Breach attributed to two of its managers, Henri Seydoux and Gilles Labossière.
• Henri Seydoux received a €60,000 financial penalty, while Gilles Labossière, who was additionally found to have committed insider trading, received a €210,000 penalty.
• Mr Seydoux was chair/CEO, and Mr Labossière was deputy CEO of Parrot at the time.
• Sanctions committee dismissed 1 complaint on Parrot's failure to communicate as soon as possible inside information on not achieving 2018 turnover/gross margin targets.
• Also dismissed a claim that it disseminated false or misleading operating segments information, but did find it disseminated false/misleading details in its 2018 half-yearly financial report on some financial indicators: attributed to Mr Seydoux/Mr Labossière.

Conclusions

• On information filed by Mr Seydoux's holding firm of a proposed takeover bid for Parrot shares, as this was privileged from 23-27 November 2018, primary insider Mr Labossière failed to refrain from using this by placing Parrot shares purchase orders on 23 November 2018.

Next Steps

• This decision may be appealed.