ESMA have published the responses to the consultation held recently on the forthcoming Market Abuse Regulation (MAR). This regulation extends the original Market Abuse Directive (MAD), and generally applies to financial trading. It will also apply to emissions and to some commodity spot trades. There is an interaction with REMIT, that generally applies to energy (as opposed to other commodities). The interesting question is which set of rules applies to a particular abuse, when considering financial energy derivatives. The “route” taken will determine under which rule set an abuser is prosecuted, and which sanctions regime applies.

The responses can be found here and here. Some of the energy and commodity focused replies are interesting.