The Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC) has imposed a €1m ($1.11m) fine on Enérgya VM Gestión de Energía, SLU for manipulating the Spanish gas market.

This penalty comes under the REMIT Regulation (EU) No 1227/2011, which prohibits market manipulation and seeks to protect the integrity and transparency of the EU’s wholesale energy markets.

The decision

In its decision, CNMC found that Enérgya VM Gestión de Energía had breached Article 5 of REMIT prohibiting market manipulation, in this case specifically defined in Article 2.2.a.ii as artificially setting the price, by marking the reference “precio último diario” (last daily price) for the Mibgas Spanish product D+1 across 32 trading sessions from September 1 to December 31, 2022.

The investigation revealed that Enérgya VM Gestión de Energía placed purchase orders without the intention of executing them, with bids entered between 0 and 7 seconds before the trading session’s closing. This behavior minimized the risk of the Enérgya VM Gestión de Energía bids being matched by other market participants according to the regulator.

As a result of Enérgya VM Gestión de Energía’s actions, in the 32 trading sessions reported the closing bid-ask spread was reduced, impacting the calculation method of the last daily price that resulted in this being artificially inflated. Furthermore, these purchase offers were entered for a volume of energy that was much lower than the volume of the rest of the purchase offers of Enérgya VM Gestión de Energía, SLU in the same market session.

Integrity of the markets

The fine imposed by the CNMC underscores the regulator’s commitment to maintaining a fair and transparent energy market in Spain. Such penalties serve as a deterrent to market participants who may be tempted to manipulate data or engage in other forms of misconduct.

The European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) said they welcomed this decision by CNMC as one that would help promote the transparency and integrity of the Spanish natural gas market.

Aviv Handler, managing director at ETR Advisory, commented: “Although REMIT has helped to ensure that the market is more integral, regulators are placing ever more scrutiny on the industry, as we see with this fine. This will only increase with the advent of REMIT II.”

Access the Decision and CNMC’s press release (both in Spanish).

See the latest table of REMIT breach sanction decisions adopted by national regulatory authorities.