Enforcement proceedings against licence holders

SFMA conducts a large number of enforcement proceedings every year against licence holders, their ultimate management and staff, and sometimes holders of qualified participations. It can only make these proceedings public where there is a particular supervisory interest in doing so.

After concluding informal investigations, SFMA decides whether to initiate enforcement proceedings.

Documents

Course of enforcement proceedings

• SFMA informs the parties involved that proceedings have been initiated, stating the suspected breaches of the law. From this point on, the rights and obligations of the parties under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) apply.
• More detailed evidence is then gathered by requesting further documents, employing an investigating agent and/or conducting on-site supervisory reviews and interviews.
• When this stage is complete, the parties can state their views on the evidence. They are normally asked for their opinion on SFMA’s intended measures.
• Enforcement forwards the outcome of the evidence and the responses, together with a draft ruling, to the Enforcement Committee (ENA). The ENA decides on the measures to be ordered against the licence holders or the relevant members of ultimate management, owners and staff, or it decides to discontinue proceedings.

Enforcement proceedings are normally not made public

SFMA conducts a large number of enforcement proceedings every year against licence holders and – mostly subsequent to these – their ultimate management, owners and staff. As a rule, it does not inform the public of individual enforcement proceedings unless there is a particular supervisory interest in doing so. It has issued a communication policy for this purpose. SFMA also publishes an annual enforcement report that provides in-depth insight into its enforcement practice using anonymised case studies.