On March 30, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a consultation paper (Consultation) regarding draft guidelines under the EU Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) for commodity and spot markets. In particular, ESMA is seeking views on its non-exhaustive indicative list of information that is either expected or required to be published on such markets in order to detect occurrences of insider dealing. MAR requires that inside information in relation to commodity derivatives must relate to either the commodity derivatives themselves or to the related spot commodity contract. Due to the wide variety of commodity markets and commodity derivatives markets, ESMA is giving further consideration as to whether the differing markets may require distinguishing between types of information specific to those markets. The comment period on the Consultation ends May 20.

A copy of the Consultation can be found here.