Daily Management Review

UK watchdog fines Engie for £ 2.1mln


09/12/2019


British energy market regulator Ofgem fined Engie Global Markets (EGM) £ 2.1 million ($ 2.57 million) following an investigation into fraud in the UK gas market by a trader in the French energy company.



Chris Allen
Chris Allen
It turned out that from June to August 2016, the trader allegedly placed artificially inflated applications and proposals for a gas contract for next month delivery without any intention to make transactions. The purpose of these frauds was to profit from fluctuations in the market.

A similar practice, known as spoofing, in which traders place significant orders that can affect market dynamics, initially intending to cancel them, is prohibited by the EU law.

The case is of particular interest, since the British gas market is one of the most liquid in Europe along with the Dutch trading platform TTF. This means that manipulating prices on it should be more difficult than on less liquid markets.

Although the investigation did not find evidence of wider market fraud on the part of EGM, Ofgem said that the company failed to take appropriate measures to identify or prevent them.

source: telegraph.co.uk