The rule also applies to consultants and family members living with covered staff, and extends to information about other companies learned through work at Apple, such as suppliers, manufacturers, vendors and customers, including mobile carriers. Employees are also barred from passing that information to anyone who might use it on these platforms, and the ban applies regardless of whether the activity would legally count as insider trading. The previous version of the policy, from September 2024, did not mention prediction markets.
Apple’s insider trading policy states:
“Do not participate in ‘prediction markets’ or similar platforms to wager, bet, trade, buy or sell contracts based on the outcome of future events, or otherwise enter into event contracts, when such activity involves the use of Apple Confidential Information.”
Breaches can lead to disciplinary action, including dismissal and the repayment of equity awards. Apple joins a number of U.S. companies that have written similar rules this year, including Emcor Group, GoDaddy, and Seagate Technology, while firms such as Goldman Sachs and McKinsey have banned staff from betting on prediction markets.
Concerns over insider trading on these platforms have grown after U.S. authorities charged former Google engineer Michele Spagnuolo with allegedly making more than $1.2 million on Polymarket using advance knowledge of Google’s Year in Search report. The CFTC has named insider trading on prediction markets among its top enforcement priorities, and Kalshi has fined a YouTube channel editor $20,397.58 and suspended him for two years over trades tied to his employer.
