The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway has published a decision finding that an individual investor breached the prohibition on market manipulation under Article 15 of the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) and imposing an administrative fine of NOK 500,000. It concluded that repeated purchases in the opening auction for NEXT shares were capable of giving false or misleading signals about demand and price and of supporting the share price at an abnormal or artificial level. The case covered trading from 2 September 2024 to 30 June 2025. The authority identified 42 opening auctions in which the investor's buys accounted for more than 50 percent of executed auction volume, lifted the opening price by more than 1 percent relative to both the previous day's close and the same day's volume-weighted average price, and set the day's highest traded price. The decision describes the conduct as extensive, systematic and repeated in a low-liquidity share, stresses that real executed trades can still amount to market manipulation under MAR where they influence reference prices such as the opening price, and notes that the trading pattern continued despite broker warnings that it could constitute market manipulation.
Norwegian Finanstilsynet 2026-05-08
Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway finds market manipulation breach and imposes NOK 500000 penalty over NEXT opening auction trades
The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway found that an individual investor breached the prohibition on market manipulation under Article 15 of the Market Abuse Regulation and imposed a NOK 500,000 fine. Extensive, systematic purchases in the opening auction for NEXT shares, often exceeding 50 percent of auction volume and lifting opening prices, gave misleading signals and supported the share price at an artificial level. The decision underscores that executed trades can constitute market manipulation when they influence reference prices and notes that the trading pattern continued despite broker warnings.