REGULATION (EU) No 1227/2011 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 25 October 2011 on wholesale energy market integrity and transparency (Text with EEA relevance)

‘inside information’ means information of a precise nature which has not been made public, which relates, directly or indirectly, to one or more wholesale energy products and which, if it were made public, would be likely to significantly affect the prices of those wholesale energy products.

For the purposes of this definition, ‘information’ means:

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Information shall be considered to be of a precise nature if it indicates a set of circumstances which exists or may reasonably be expected to come into existence, or an event which has occurred or may reasonably be expected to occur, and if it is specific enough to enable a conclusion to be drawn as to the possible effect of that set of circumstances or event on the prices of wholesale energy products. Information may be considered to be of a precise nature if it relates to a protracted process that is intended to bring about, or that results in, particular circumstances or a particular event, including future circumstances or future events, and also if it relates to the intermediate steps of that process which are connected with bringing about or resulting in those future circumstances or future events.

An intermediate step in a protracted process shall be considered to be inside information if it, by itself, satisfies the criteria of inside information as referred to in the first subparagraph of this point.

For the purposes of the first subparagraph of this point, information shall be considered to be directly or indirectly related to the wholesale energy product if it has a possible effect on the demand, supply or prices of a wholesale energy product, or on the expectations of the demand, supply or prices of a wholesale energy product.

For the purposes of the first subparagraph of this point, information which, if it were made public, would be likely to significantly affect the prices of the wholesale energy products means information that a reasonable market participant would be likely to use as part of the basis of his or her decision concerning trading with wholesale energy products;

‘market manipulation’ means:

Market manipulation may designate the conduct of a legal person, or, in accordance with Union or national law, of a natural person who participates in the decision to carry out activities for the account of the legal person concerned;

‘attempt to manipulate the market’ means:

‘wholesale energy products’ means the following contracts and derivatives, irrespective of where and how they are traded:

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Contracts for the supply and distribution of ►M2  electricity, hydrogen or natural gas ◄ for the use of final customers are not wholesale energy products. However, contracts for the supply and distribution of ►M2  electricity, hydrogen or natural gas ◄ to final customers with a consumption capacity greater than the threshold set out in the second paragraph of point (5) shall be treated as wholesale energy products;

‘consumption capacity’ means the consumption of a final customer of either ►M2  electricity, hydrogen or natural gas ◄ at full use of that customer's production capacity. It comprises all consumption by that customer as a single economic entity, in so far as consumption takes place on markets with interrelated wholesale prices.

For the purposes of this definition, consumption at individual plants under the control of a single economic entity that have a consumption capacity of less than 600 GWh per year shall not be taken into account in so far as those plants do not exert a joint influence on wholesale energy market prices due to their being located in different relevant geographical markets;

‘wholesale energy market’ means any market within the Union on which wholesale energy products are traded;

‘market participant’ means any person, including transmission system operators, distribution system operators, storage system operators and LNG system operators, who enters into transactions, including the placing of orders to trade, in one or more wholesale energy markets;

‘person’ means any natural or legal person;

‘person professionally arranging or executing transactions’ means a person professionally engaged in the reception and transmission of orders for, or in the execution of transactions in, wholesale energy products;

‘competent financial authority’ means a competent authority designated in accordance with the procedure laid down in ►M1  Article 22 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 ◄ ;

‘national regulatory authority’ means a national regulatory authority designated in accordance with Article 35(1) of Directive 2009/72/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity ( 6 ) or Article 39(1) of Directive 2009/73/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas ( 7 );

‘transmission system operator’ has the meaning set out in point 4 of Article 2 of Directive 2009/72/EC and in point 4 of Article 2 of Directive 2009/73/EC;

‘distribution system operator’ means distribution system operator as defined in Article 2, point (6), of Directive 2009/73/EC and in Article 2, point (29), of Directive (EU) 2019/944;

‘storage system operator’ means storage system operator as defined in Article 2, point (10), of Directive 2009/73/EC or operator of an ‘energy storage facility’ as defined in Article 2, point (60), of Directive (EU) 2019/944;

‘LNG system operator’ means LNG system operator as defined in Article 2, point (12), of Directive 2009/73/EC;

‘parent undertaking’ means a parent undertaking within the meaning of Articles 1 and 2 of the Seventh Council Directive 83/349/EEC of 13 June 1983 based on Article 54(3)(g) of the Treaty on consolidated accounts ( 8 );

‘related undertaking’ means either a subsidiary or other undertaking in which a participation is held, or an undertaking linked with another undertaking by a relationship within the meaning of Article 12(1) of Directive 83/349/EEC;

‘distribution of natural gas’ has the meaning set out in point (5) of Article 2 of Directive 2009/73/EC;

‘distribution of electricity’ has the meaning set out in point (5) of Article 2 of Directive 2009/72/EC;

‘registered reporting mechanism’ or ‘RRM’ means a legal person authorised pursuant to this Regulation to report or to provide the service of reporting details of transactions, including orders to trade, and fundamental data to the Agency on its own behalf or on behalf of market participants;

‘inside information platform’ or ‘IIP’ means a person authorised pursuant to this Regulation to provide the service of operating a platform for the disclosure of inside information and for the reporting of disclosed inside information to the Agency on behalf of market participants;

‘algorithmic trading’ means trading, including high-frequency trading, in wholesale energy products where a computer algorithm automatically determines individual parameters of orders to trade such as whether to initiate the order, the timing, price or quantity of the order or how to manage the order after its submission, with limited human intervention or no such intervention at all, not including any system that is only used for the purpose of routing orders to one or more organised marketplaces or for the processing of orders involving no determination of any trading parameters or for the confirmation of orders or the post-trade processing of executed transactions;

‘direct electronic access’ means an arrangement whereby a member, participant or client of an organised marketplace allows another person to use its trading code so the person can electronically transmit orders to trade relating to a wholesale energy product directly to the organised marketplace, including arrangements which involve the use by a person of the information technology infrastructure of the member, participant or client, or any connecting system provided by the member, participant, or client, to transmit the orders to trade (direct market access) and arrangements whereby such an infrastructure is not used by a person (sponsored access);

‘organised marketplace’ or ‘OMP’ means an energy exchange, an energy broker, an energy capacity platform or any other system or facility in which multiple third-party buying or selling interests in wholesale energy products interact in a manner that may result in a transaction;

‘order book’ means all the details of wholesale energy products executed at an OMP, including matched and unmatched orders as well as system-generated orders and life cycle events;

‘benchmark’ means an index as defined in Article 3(1), point 3, of Regulation (EU) 2016/1011 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 9 ), by reference to which the amount payable under a wholesale energy product, or a contract relating to a wholesale energy product, or the value of a wholesale energy product is determined;

‘LNG trading’ means bids, offers or transactions, including but not limited to those taking place over the counter or in an OMP, for the purchase or sale of LNG:

‘LNG market data’ means records of bids, offers or transactions for LNG trading with corresponding information;

‘LNG market participant’ means any natural or legal person, irrespective of that person’s place of incorporation or domicile, who engages in LNG trading;

‘LNG price assessment’ means the determination of a daily reference price for LNG trading in accordance with a methodology established by the Agency;

‘LNG benchmark’ means the determination of a spread between the daily LNG price assessment and the settlement price for the TTF Gas Futures front-month contract established by ICE Endex Markets B.V. on a daily basis.