The Rotterdam District Court has issued a judgment reducing a fine of €500,000 imposed by the AFM (Autoriteit Financiele Markten) on Tradition Securities and Futures S.A. to €100,000.
The AFM had issued questionnaires in 2020, 2021, and 2022 in relation to TSAF's compliance with Dutch AML and sanctions laws. The questionnaires were not completed.
In June 2023 the AFM notified TSAF of the intention to impose a fine of €500,000 for the failings. This was imposed in October 2023, and the judgment is the result of an appeal against both any fine and the amount of the fine.
The appeal against the fine itself was dismissed.
In relation to the size of the fine the Court ruled that the AFM failed to take note of a range of factors in its own fines guidance, namely that there was no damage to third parties, no unlawfully obtained gain, no (major) social impact, no significant scale, and no market disruption. Further it was noted that this request for information was a generic annual questionnaire and not in the context of a particular investigation or alleged breaches of sanctions. The Court was of the view that TSAF should have benefitted from a 50% reduction upon the proper application of the fining guidance but then further reduced the fine from €250,000 on the basis that such a fine was "disproportionate "not in reasonable proportion to the nature and seriousness of the violation".
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