Key lessons from the FSA's recent penalties on issuers for delayed disclosure

On 21 June 2010, Photo-Me International plc was issued the largest ever financial penalty of its type by the Financial Services Authority (the "FSA") for not disclosing inside information about its poor trading activity in early 2007 to the market in a timely manner. The FSA argued that by not issuing a profit warning for 44 days until 2 March 2007, it created a "false market" in its shares for that period.

Over the last two years, the FSA has levied fines ranging between £182,000 to £318,000 on three other issuers for failing to announce inside information to the market in a timely fashion (with one fine being levied for a delay period as short as 16 days) and as a result carrying out in each instance similar breaches of the Disclosure and Transparency Rules (the "DTR") and the Listing Rules (the "LR") to that of Photo-Me International plc.

Lawyers