On 10 October, the EU Council of Ministers adopted the Regulation on Wholesale Energy Market Integrity and Transparency (REMIT). REMIT will prohibit market abuse (insider trading and market manipulation) in physical and over-the-counter financial transactions in wholesale energy markets. It will effectively extend to these transactions the regime currently applicable to transactions in securities under the Market Abuse Directive, MAD (which is currently being revised, as we note above). Extending the European Commission's original proposal, REMIT will now also apply to transactions entered into by end users of gas and electricity with an annual consumption of 600 GWh or more (as an illustration, the consumption of a large cement manufacturer with 6 plants). The key prohibitions are expected to enter into force next month. However, a number of elements of the new regime, including data collection and trader registration requirements, and specific enforcement powers for national energy regulators, will come into force at a later date. Our more detailed note on REMIT is available here.
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