Volkswagen fined $1.3 million by BaFin for forecast disclosure

By Dominic Chopping The German financial supervisory authority fined Volkswagen 1.2 million euros ($1.3 million), saying the automaker failed to disclose potentially market-moving news in a proper and timely manner. The regulator, known as BaFin, said Friday that Volkswagen's forecast for the 2023 financial year was significantly above market expectations, and that the German automaker should have issued an immediate, or ad hoc, announcement for financial markets regarding the business performance reflected in the forecast. Instead, the company published this inside information in a press release, the regulator said. Volkswagen didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. BaFin said the requirement to publish such information immediately is intended to prevent insiders from gaining an advantage when trading in securities and other financial instruments due to their privileged access, while it also intends to ensure that investors aren't misled when making investment decisions. "Failure by a company to publish inside information as soon as possible in the form of an ad hoc disclosure constitutes a breach of the Market Abuse Regulation," it said in a statement. The fine was imposed on Oct. 1. Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires October 09, 2026 02:35 ET (06:35 GMT) Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. The statements in this document shall not be considered as an objective or independent explanation of the matters. Please note that this document (a) has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research, and (b) is not subject to any prohibition on dealing ahead of the dissemination or publication of investment research.