Market abuse and insider dealing are the related offences whereby individuals or companies use non-public information to manipulate the market.

Insider dealing is defined under the Criminal Justice Act 1993, which stipulates that an individual is committing a criminal offence if they use inside non-public information in relation to price-affected shares to deal, or encourage another person to deal, in those shares and the dealing takes place on a regulated market. The person dealing discloses this information as part of their employment.

There are a number of defences to any accusations of insider dealing, for example if the individual accused or this offence can show that they did not expect the dealing to result in a profit resulting from the market-sensitivity of the information, or that they reasonably believed that the information had been widely disclosed.

Market abuse is not regulated by any criminal legislation and the regulations are instead set out in the Market Abuse Regulation. This includes making misleading statements or impressions in relation to market activity.

Investigations can be long and tedious with restrictions on your assets, interviews under caution and criminal proceedings. Nicholls & Nicholls know how to negotiate with the relevant authorities, try to keep life as normal as possible for the client, and to protect their work and personal interests as best as possible.