The EURO STOXX 50 is one of the principal benchmarks for large listed companies in the eurozone.
STOXX describes the index as representing 50 of the largest companies in the eurozone by free-float market capitalisation, drawn from a range of major industry sectors. The benchmark currently includes companies from eight countries and captures roughly 60% of the free-float market capitalisation of the wider EURO STOXX Total Market Index.
The September 2026 annual review brought ENGIE and Nokia into the index, replacing Wolters Kluwer and Volkswagen preference shares. The changes took effect on 21 September 2026 and are reflected in this dataset.
For each constituent, Big4News identified the current statutory auditor or auditors, the first financial year of the current audit relationship where this could be established reliably, and the latest available audit fee.
Unlike the S&P 500, however, the EURO STOXX 50 cannot always be analysed on a simple one-company, one-auditor basis.
Several French companies appoint two statutory audit firms simultaneously. Big4News therefore records those firms separately.
That produces 65 current audit appointments across the 50 companies.
The table is interactive: click any column heading to sort the data by company, sector, auditor, tenure or audit fee.
The dataset reflects the index composition following the September 2026 review.
EURO STOXX 50 Audit Market Share
PwC holds the largest number of mandates
PwC has the strongest position in the EURO STOXX 50, with 18 of the 65 audit appointments, equivalent to 27.7%.
Deloitte follows with 15 mandates, or 23.1%.
EY holds 13, representing 20.0%, while KPMG has 11, or 16.9%.
The remaining eight mandates are held outside the Big Four:
Forvis Mazars — 6
BDO — 1
Grant Thornton — 1
Together, Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC account for 57 of the 65 current audit appointments, or 87.7%.
That remains an overwhelming share.
But it is noticeably below the concentration found in the large-company US market.
In the S&P 500, the Big Four audit 494 of 500 companies, or 98.8%. In the Nasdaq-100, they audit 99 of 100.
The EURO STOXX 50 therefore presents a different picture: the Big Four still dominate, but large European companies provide a more meaningful foothold for firms outside the four global networks.
Forvis Mazars has a significant position
Most of that non-Big Four presence belongs to Forvis Mazars.
The firm holds six EURO STOXX 50 statutory audit mandates.
It serves alongside PwC at Schneider Electric and Sanofi, EY at Safran, EssilorLuxottica and Danone, and Deloitte at LVMH.
Grant Thornton is joint statutory auditor of Hermès International alongside PwC.
BDO occupies an even more distinctive position: it is the sole statutory auditor of SAP.
SAP appointed BDO for FY2026.
That means SAP is the only company in the EURO STOXX 50 without a Big Four firm involved in its current statutory audit.
Across the remaining 49 companies, at least one of Deloitte, EY, KPMG or PwC is present.
The European market is therefore still highly concentrated, but its structure is different from that of the US. Non-Big Four participation is concentrated largely in joint-audit arrangements rather than in companies abandoning the Big Four altogether.
The picture changes considerably by sector
PwC’s overall lead does not translate into dominance in every industry.
Financial services is the largest sector in the dataset, with 13 companies and 15 auditor appointments.
PwC and EY each hold five financial-sector mandates, KPMG has three and Deloitte two.
Industrials account for nine companies but 13 audit appointments because several use joint auditors.
PwC, Deloitte and KPMG each hold three industrial mandates, while EY and Forvis Mazars each hold two.
Consumer discretionary contains nine companies and 12 audit appointments.
PwC leads that group with four, followed by Deloitte with three. EY and Forvis Mazars each hold two, while Grant Thornton has one through its joint-audit role at Hermès.
Information technology tells a rather different story.
There are only four technology companies in the index: ASML, SAP, Infineon Technologies and Nokia.
Deloitte audits two of them — Infineon and Nokia — while PwC audits ASML and BDO audits SAP.
The result is a much less technology-heavy audit market than the Nasdaq-100, where information technology alone accounts for 42 companies.
The sector mix therefore helps explain why the competitive pattern among audit firms differs so markedly between the two indices.
European audit relationships are generally much shorter
One of the clearest contrasts with the S&P 500 is audit tenure.
Some US audit relationships stretch back more than a century.
Nothing comparable appears in the EURO STOXX 50 dataset.
Among the appointments for which an exact starting year could be established, the oldest identified relationships date to 1999.
PwC has audited Sanofi since 1999, while Grant Thornton’s statutory audit relationship with Hermès International also dates to 1999.
Several further engagements begin in 2004: EY at TotalEnergies, Forvis Mazars at Schneider Electric, Deloitte at L’Oréal and KPMG at Saint-Gobain.
BNP Paribas has used Deloitte since 2006, while Forvis Mazars has served EssilorLuxottica since 2007.
The contrast with the United States is structural rather than accidental.
European public-interest entities are subject to mandatory auditor-rotation rules that restrict how long the same statutory audit firm can remain in place.
Europe rotates audit firms as well as audit partners
EU rules impose a maximum duration on statutory audit engagements for public-interest entities.
The standard maximum period is ten years, although national rules and the EU framework allow extensions in certain circumstances.
A competitive tender can permit a longer engagement, while a joint-audit arrangement can allow the maximum duration to extend further.
Under the EU Audit Regulation, an engagement may be extended to a maximum of 24 years where more than one statutory auditor or audit firm is appointed simultaneously and the firms produce a joint audit report.
That is an important part of the context for the EURO STOXX 50 data.
It helps explain both the prevalence of relatively recent appointments and the continued use of joint auditors among major French companies.
The system is fundamentally different from the US regime, where companies can retain the same audit firm indefinitely provided partner-rotation and other independence requirements are met.
The European model therefore places greater emphasis on changing the audit firm itself.
Santander has the largest audit fee in the dataset
Audit-fee information is less uniform across Europe than in US proxy filings, but Big4News was able to identify a reliable current figure for 26 of the 50 companies in this research pass.
Among those companies, the median disclosed audit fee is approximately €20.1 million.
Banco Santander has the largest figure in the dataset at €118.5 million (PwC).
It is followed by:
Allianz — €69.6 million (PwC)
BNP Paribas — €67.63 million (Deloitte / EY)
TotalEnergies — €46.11 million (PwC / EY)
LVMH — €35.0 million (Deloitte / Forvis Mazars)
Eni — €31.07 million (PwC)
Sanofi — €29.2 million (Forvis Mazars / PwC)
BBVA — €26.7 million (EY)
Vinci — €24.7 million (PwC / EY)
Schneider Electric — €24.57 million (PwC / Forvis Mazars)
Iberdrola — €23.55 million (KPMG)
Saint-Gobain — €22.6 million (Deloitte / KPMG)
Intesa Sanpaolo — €20.96 million (EY)
These figures need more caution than a simple league table might suggest.
European issuers do not all report audit remuneration using identical terminology or presentation.
In addition, where a company has joint auditors, the disclosed audit-fee figure may relate to the combined statutory audit rather than representing the amount received by either individual firm.
Big4News therefore does not allocate a joint-audit fee between the firms unless the underlying company disclosure itself provides that split.
The figures should be read as company-level audit costs rather than auditor-level fee revenue.
About the data
The dataset covers the 50 constituents of the EURO STOXX 50 following the September 2026 annual review, which became effective on 21 September 2026.
ENGIE and Nokia entered the index, while Wolters Kluwer and Volkswagen preference shares were removed.
Auditor identifies the current statutory or external auditor.
Where a company appoints two statutory audit firms, both are retained separately rather than forcing the company into a single-auditor classification.
This is particularly relevant for French companies, where joint statutory audits are common among large listed groups.
Since represents the first financial year for which the current firm held the statutory audit engagement, where that date could be established to the evidentiary standard used in this project.
It is not necessarily the date on which shareholders most recently approved or renewed the appointment.
Where an auditor changed for FY2026, the first year is recorded as 2026 only where the transition was supported by company or regulatory evidence.
Audit fee is the latest reliably disclosed amount attributable to audit services.
Audit-related and non-audit services are excluded where they can be separated from the statutory audit category.
For joint-audit companies, the figure may represent the combined audit remuneration paid to both statutory auditors.
No attempt is made to divide the amount between the two firms unless the issuer itself provides that information.
Fees are shown in euros.
The primary sources used include annual reports, shareholder-meeting documents, statutory auditor disclosures, regulatory filings and company investor-relations material.
Underlying data snapshot: September 2026.
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