Article 2Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation the following definitions shall apply:

(1)

‘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:

F1a)

information which is required to be made public in accordance with:

i)

guidelines and network codes adopted pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 714/2009 before 1 January 2020; or

ii)

the Electricity Regulation or the Gas Regulation, including guidelines and network codes adopted, or regulations made, pursuant to those Regulations;

b)

information relating to the capacity and use of facilities for production, storage, consumption or transmission of electricity or natural gas or related to the capacity and use of LNG facilities, including planned or unplanned unavailability of these facilities;

c)

information which is required to be disclosed in accordance with legal or regulatory provisions F2..., market rules, and contracts or customs on the relevant wholesale energy market, in so far as this information is likely to have a significant effect on the prices of wholesale energy products; and

d)

other information that a reasonable market participant would be likely to use as part of the basis of its decision to enter into a transaction relating to, or to issue an order to trade in, a wholesale energy product.

Information shall be deemed 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 do so, 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;

(2)

‘market manipulation’ means:

a)

entering into any transaction or issuing any order to trade in wholesale energy products which:

i)

gives, or is likely to give, false or misleading signals as to the supply of, demand for, or price of wholesale energy products;

ii)

secures or attempts to secure, by a person, or persons acting in collaboration, the price of one or several wholesale energy products at an artificial level, unless the person who entered into the transaction or issued the order to trade establishes that his reasons for doing so are legitimate and that that transaction or order to trade conforms to accepted market practices on the wholesale energy market concerned; or

iii)

employs or attempts to employ a fictitious device or any other form of deception or contrivance which gives, or is likely to give, false or misleading signals regarding the supply of, demand for, or price of wholesale energy products;

or

b)

disseminating information through the media, including the internet, or by any other means, which gives, or is likely to give, false or misleading signals as to the supply of, demand for, or price of wholesale energy products, including the dissemination of rumours and false or misleading news, where the disseminating person knew, or ought to have known, that the information was false or misleading.

When information is disseminated for the purposes of journalism or artistic expression, such dissemination of information shall be assessed taking into account the rules governing the freedom of the press and freedom of expression in other media, unless:

i)

those persons derive, directly or indirectly, an advantage or profits from the dissemination of the information in question; or

ii)

the disclosure or dissemination is made with the intention of misleading the market as to the supply of, demand for, or price of wholesale energy products;

(3)

‘attempt to manipulate the market’ means:

a)

entering into any transaction, issuing any order to trade or taking any other action relating to a wholesale energy product with the intention of:

i)

giving false or misleading signals as to the supply of, demand for, or price of wholesale energy products;

ii)

securing the price of one or several wholesale energy products at an artificial level, unless the person who entered into the transaction or issued the order to trade establishes that his reasons for doing so are legitimate and that that transaction or order to trade conforms to accepted market practices on the wholesale energy market concerned; or

iii)

employing a fictitious device or any other form of deception or contrivance which gives, or is likely to give, false or misleading signals regarding the supply of, demand for, or price of wholesale energy products;

or

b)

disseminating information through the media, including the internet, or by any other means with the intention of giving false or misleading signals as to the supply of, demand for, or price of wholesale energy products;

(4)

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

a)

contracts for the supply of electricity or natural gas where delivery is in F3the United Kingdom or the EU;

b)

derivatives relating to electricity or natural gas produced, traded or delivered in F3the United Kingdom or the EU;

c)

contracts relating to the transportation of electricity or natural gas in F3the United Kingdom or the EU;

d)

derivatives relating to the transportation of electricity or natural gas in F3the United Kingdom or the EU.

Contracts for the supply and distribution of electricity or natural gas for the use of final customers are not wholesale energy products. However, contracts for the supply and distribution of electricity 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;

(5)

‘consumption capacity’ means the consumption of a final customer of either electricity 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;

(6)

‘wholesale energy market’ means any market within F4the United Kingdom or the EU on which wholesale energy products are traded;

(7)

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

(8)

‘person’ means any natural or legal person;

F5(8A)

‘national authority’ means—

a)

the Secretary of State, in relation to Great Britain;

b)

the Secretary of State or the Northern Ireland department, in relation to Northern Ireland;

(8B)

‘the Northern Ireland department’ means the Department for the Economy;

F6(9)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

F7(10)

‘the national regulatory authority’ means—

a)

the GB Authority in relation to Great Britain;

b)

the NI Authority in relation to Northern Ireland;

(10A)

‘the GB Authority’ means the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority;

(10B)

‘the NI Authority’ means the Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation;

(10C)

‘national regulatory authorities of member States’ means authorities designated as national regulatory authorities by a member State in accordance with Article 35(1) of Directive 2009/72/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity or Article 39(1) of Directive 2009/73/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas;

(11)

‘transmission system operator’ has the meaning set out in Article 2 of the Electricity Regulation in relation to electricity, and has the meaning set out in Article 2 of the Gas Regulation in relation to gas;

(12)

‘parent undertaking’ has the meaning given in section 1162 of the Companies Act 2006;

(13)

‘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;

F8(14)

‘distribution of natural gas’ has the meaning given to “distribution” in Article 2 of the Gas Regulation;

(15)

‘distribution of electricity’ has the meaning given to “distribution” in Article 2 of the Electricity Regulation;

F9(16)

‘the Electricity Regulation’ means Regulation (EU) 2019/943 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the internal market for electricity (recast);

(17)

‘the Gas Regulation’ means Regulation (EC) No 715/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on conditions for access to the natural gas transmission networks;

(18)

‘the Market Abuse Regulation’ means Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on market abuse;

(19)

‘relevant law on markets in financial instruments’ means—

a)

Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on markets in financial instruments; and

b)

any law relied upon immediately before IP completion day to implement Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on markets in financial instruments in the United Kingdom—

i)

as it is in force on IP completion day, in the case of rules made by the FCA or the Prudential Regulation Authority under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000;

ii)

as amended from time to time in all other cases;

(20)

‘the REMIT Implementing Regulation’ means Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1348/2014 on data reporting;

(21)

‘the Agency’ means the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators established under Regulation (EU) 2019/942 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 (recast) (as it applies in EU law);

(22)

‘the CMA’ means the Competition and Markets Authority;

(23)

‘the FCA’ means the Financial Conduct Authority;

(24)

‘industry code’ means a document maintained in accordance with a licence condition;

(25)

‘licence condition’ means a condition of a licence under—

a)

section 7, 7ZA or 7A of the Gas Act 1986 or section 6 of the Electricity Act 1989 in relation to Great Britain; or

b)

Article 8 of the Gas (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 in relation to Northern Ireland;

(26)

‘relevant financial instrument’ means a financial instrument to which Article 2(1)(a) or (d) of the Market Abuse Regulation applies, with Article 2(1)(d) being read for this purpose as if the references to “point (a), (b) or (c)” and to “those points” were references to “point (a)”;

(27)

‘the SEM’ means the Single Electricity Market as defined in the Electricity (Single Wholesale Market) (Northern Ireland) Order 2007.