Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has launched a review of Zalando's consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2025, on suspicion that information regarding the acquisition of ABOUT YOU Holding may be missing from the accounting documentation.
"Information relating to a related party transaction in connection with the acquisition of ABOUT YOU Holding SE may have been erroneously omitted in the notes to the consolidated financial statements," BaFin explained.
The supervisory body has stressed that the announcement of the start of this audit aims to enhance market transparency and investor confidence, but has emphasized that this does not imply that the accounts are incorrect or that there are indications of probable errors in Zalando's financial statements.
For its part, the e-commerce company has officially acknowledged that BaFin has begun examining its accounts for 2025 and has indicated that it maintains "a close and constructive dialogue" with the German authority throughout the process.
In the same vein, the company has insisted that "this is a purely formal aspect of little material relevance" within the notes to the financial statements, recalling that all key information about the purchase of ABOUT YOU shares, including the parties involved, the structure of the transaction, and the price paid, was already publicly available in the context of the takeover bid.
Zalando completed the purchase of ABOUT YOU Holding in July 2025, a transaction that had been initially announced in December of the previous fiscal year.
In reaction to this news, shares of the German e-commerce firm fell by up to 9.17% on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange this Friday.