MAR: ESMA publishes guidelines on commodity derivatives inside information

The guidelines set out a non-exhaustive list of information which is reasonably expected or required to be disclosed in accordance with legal or regulatory provisions in EU or national law, market rules, contract, practice or custom on the relevant commodity derivatives markets or spot markets as referred to in Article 7(1)(b) of MAR.

Among other things, the final report sets out ESMA's feedback to the responses received to its consultation in March 2015 and the final guidelines. ESMA expects market participants, investors and regulators to take into account the list when determining whether information is inside information, although the guidelines note that the assessment should also be conducted against other conditions of the definition of inside information not covered by the guidelines.

ESMA will publish translations of the guidelines in the official EU languages on its website, after which national competent authorities will have two months to confirm whether they comply or intend to comply with the guidelines.