ACER releases first reports on the detection, reporting and response to suspicious energy market behaviours under REMIT

The EU-wide framework that protects consumers and businesses from energy market manipulation and insider trading is commonly known as REMIT. This highly sophisticated framework involves many parties collecting and monitoring data, all working together to ensure the integrity of Europe’s wholesale energy markets. Ultimately, national regulators are enforcing REMIT.

For the first time, ACER publishes two reports on energy market surveillance, concerning:

• Persons professionally arranging transactions (PPATs): Analysing their preparedness to detect and report suspicious energy market activities.
• National energy regulatory authorities (NRAs): Focusing on their analysis of suspicious transaction and order reports (STORs) submitted by PPATs, their enforcement actions and penalties.

Both reports are mandated by the revised REMIT Regulation (2024) which introduces new obligations for these trading intermediaries (called PPATs under the REMIT framework) and for ACER to report on the follow-ups by the national energy regulators. 

What are ACER’s key findings and recommendations?

ACER identified the following areas for improvement in some PPATs’ surveillance practices:

• Absence of a formal surveillance function.
• Undisclosed conflicts of interest by employees.
• Undefined or unformalised market surveillance procedures to 'detect, analyse, notify and deter' as required by REMIT.
• Lack of surveillance IT system.
• Undue influence by management on the content or submission of suspicious transaction and order reports.

To address these gaps, ACER suggests:

• Structural separation: REMIT surveillance functions should be clearly separated, whether internal or outsourced, with specialised staff and tools to reduce conflicts of interest and improve performance.
• Client interaction procedures: These processes need to be updated or enhanced to ensure effective monitoring.
• Use professional and certified tools: Where possible, PPATs should use certified systems tailored to their needs, as generic tools may not be effective.
• Increase monitoring coverage: Surveillance systems should monitor all tradable products to detect cross-product manipulation.
• Regular audits: Surveillance functions should be audited more frequently, with a focus on data security and information management.

Read the report.

ACER reviewed the suspicious transactions and order reports submitted by PPATs in 2023 and 2024. Overall, their quality was satisfactory, providing enough information to assess potential breaches of REMIT on the EU wholesale energy markets.

To further improve the quality of this reporting and reinforce national regulators’ capacity to analyse the suspicious reports they receive, ACER encourages national regulatory authorities to:

• Strengthen cooperation by maintaining or establishing regular discussions with PPATs to continuously improve the STOR quality.
• Ensure adequate resources by providing adequate personnel (e.g. case handlers) and tools to manage the growing number of REMIT cases.
• Promptly communicate with ACER by notifying ACER when investigations on potential REMIT breaches are initiated and providing timely case updates to ensure a coordinated enforcement across the EU.
• Streamline case management by promptly rejecting reports of potential REMIT breaches which, upon initial review, are deemed irrelevant or that can be de-prioritised.

Read the report.