The Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority has issued a decision finding a breach of the prohibition on market manipulation under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (MAR) Article 15, and imposed an administrative fine of NOK 150,000. The case concerns repeated placement, rapid adjustment and subsequent cancellation or reversal of orders assessed as non-genuine and capable of giving false or misleading signals about supply, demand or price. The investigation covered trading from 13 March 2024 to 10 October 2025, conducted both personally and through a wholly owned company and executed via two securities firms, drawing on Euronext Securities Oslo and Euronext Oslo Børs surveillance data and eight suspicious order and transaction reports from three actors. Finanstilsynet identified a systematic pattern in multiple shares where large or multiple orders were entered on one side of the order book at stepped price levels, other participants reacted by moving their quotes, and the trader then executed trades on the opposite side before cancelling or moving the original orders to levels unlikely to be executed. The authority observed 46 days with this type of behaviour across nine shares and grounded the decision on selected episodes across 10 days in six less liquid shares, with observed order-book price changes of around 2.22% to 8.11%; one example in Eidesvik Offshore ASA on 12 August 2024 involved 644 order submissions or amendments in 55 minutes, 33 opposite-direction trades and a profit of NOK 10,189. Finanstilsynet rejected the trader’s explanation that the conduct reflected a non-manipulative “scalping” strategy influenced by algorithmic trading, and considered the orders misleading even where the behaviour shifted from cancellations to reversals after warnings from securities firms.

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