EU energy firms face uphill struggle to comply with market abuse rules

The European Union is implementing new legislation and adopting an increasingly aggressive stance on energy market abuse. But the continent’s energy trading firms face an uphill struggle to comply with the rules. Stella Farrington reports

Market abuse has always been a core concern of regulators, but since the global financial crisis, the political and regulatory crusade against it has stepped up a gear. In both the European Union (EU) and the US, legislators have brought in stronger penalties for firms attempting to game the system, while regulators that were previously seen as a soft touch are working hard to toughen their image. Perhaps most notably, this has involved meting out colossal fines to several major banks and