Apple restricts prediction trading using confidential information
Apple has expanded its insider-trading policy to expressly prohibit employees and contractors from using confidential information obtained through their work to trade in prediction markets. The updated policy, disclosed with the company’s fiscal 2026 annual filing, addresses event contracts separately from conventional securities transactions.
The restriction covers participation in prediction markets and similar platforms when a trade, bet, or contract uses Apple Confidential Information. Its scope includes information concerning Apple and other companies encountered through work, including suppliers, manufacturers, vendors, customers, and business partners. It therefore extends beyond wagers on Apple product announcements alone.
The policy also prohibits passing confidential information to people who might use it in those markets. Its language does not establish a general ban on every prediction-market transaction by Apple personnel. The stated restriction depends on the use or disclosure of information covered by the company’s confidentiality rules.
Internal rules extend beyond securities law
Apple expressly separates its internal prohibition from the question of whether a transaction constitutes unlawful securities trading. “This prohibition applies whether or not the activity constitutes insider trading or securities trading under applicable laws,” the policy states. Confidential information under the provision includes, but is not limited to, material nonpublic information.
The new provision sits alongside existing prohibitions covering securities trading while aware of material nonpublic information, tipping, third-party trading, restricted trading periods, short sales, hedging, and derivatives. The addition gives prediction markets their own explicit treatment within that policy rather than relying solely on the wording applied to traditional financial instruments.
The disclosure comes amid scrutiny of information advantages in event-contract markets. In a separate case previously reported by MagBet, Ballon d’Or organizers began preparing a complaint over suspicious Polymarket activity. That investigation concerned alleged disclosure of award rankings; it did not establish wrongdoing by Apple employees or relate to Apple’s policy change.
Apple’s filing does not announce a regulatory decision governing prediction exchanges or identify an employee sanctioned under the new provision. It sets a company conduct rule covering confidential information and information-sharing. The policy’s express reach includes work-related information about business partners as well as Apple itself.
