The Disciplinary Committee of Nasdaq Stockholm has found that Precise Biometrics AB (“Precise” or the “Company”) has breached Nasdaq Stockholm’s Rule Book for Issuers (the “Rule Book”) and therefore ordered Precise to pay a fine of two annual fees, corresponding to an amount of SEK 410,000.
The Disciplinary Committee has found that the Company has breached item 3.1 in the Rule Book by not disclosing inside information in accordance with Article 17 in MAR and Article 2.1 in the Implementing Regulation.
On October 20, 2017, the Company published a press release (the ”Press release”) with information about an upgrade of the Company’s fingerprint solution for smart cards. The information in the Press release was not labeled as inside information. After the Press release was published, the Company’s share price increased by 41 percent, and by an additional 38 percent on the following trading day, October 23, 2017.
According to the Disciplinary Committee, a product upgrade of the kind announced by the Company – which included significant improvements of one of the issuer’s main products as well as expectations of reduced production costs – would typically have a substantial impact on the price of the issuer’s financial instruments. The information in the press release should thus have been considered inside information. By not disclosing information in accordance with Article 17 in MAR and Article 2.1 in the Implementing Regulation, the Company has breached item 3.1 in the Rule Book.
The Disciplinary Committee has decided that the sanction should be a fine corresponding to two annual fees.
A detailed description of the matter and the Disciplinary Committee’s decision is available at:
Participating in the Committee’s decision were former Supreme Court Justice Marianne Lundius, Supreme Court Justice Ann-Christine Lindeblad, Authorized Public Accountant Svante Forsberg, Company Director Carl-Johan Högbom and Company Director Anders Oscarsson.
