ESMA have issued a final report which includes draft MAR guidelines on information relating to commodity derivatives markets or relates spot markets for the purpose of the definition of inside information. The document can be found here.

“Inside information” is defined under MAR Article 7(1) b  using 3 criteria (as reiterated in the paper):

a) relates:

i. directly or indirectly to commodity derivatives as financial instruments admitted to
trading or traded on a trading venue,
ii. directly to a spot commodity contract;

b) meets the three criteria laid down in MAR for defining inside information in relation to
financial instruments:

i. being non-public,
ii. being precise, and
iii. being likely to have a significant price effect if it were made public on the
commodity derivatives themselves or on the related spot commodity contract;

c) is “reasonably expected to be disclosed or required to be disclosed in accordance with legal or regulatory provisions at Union or national level, market rules, contract, practice or custom, on the relevant commodity derivatives markets or spot markets”.

The draft guidelines, which are found in Annex IV, relate solely to point c, i.e. they provide a non exhaustive list of which information is reasonably expected to be disclosed under existing provisions and therefore could qualify as inside information under MAR prior t publication, if the other criteria are met. The guidelines do not form a list of inside information required to be published under MAR.

Those in gas and power will note that any information required to be published under REMIT fulfils this criteria under the guidelines