What is inside information?

Information is classified as an inside information if it meets the following criteria:

• represents one of the types of information defined by the rules
• meets the 4 cumulative criteria defined within the REMIT

For wholesale energy market monitoring, the following types of information are defined by the rules:

• Information required to be published under the Law of Georgia on Energy and Water Supply, legal acts issued in accordance with it, market monitoring and reporting rules, and other legal acts adopted by the Commission.
• information relating to the capacity and use of facilities for production, storage, consumption or transmission of electricity or natural gas or related to the capacity and use of LNG facilities, including planned or unplanned unavailability of these facilities;
• information which is required to be disclosed in accordance with legal or regulatory provisions at Energy Community or Georgian legislation, including market rules, market monitoring and reporting rules and other legal acts adopted by the Commission, contracts or customs on the relevant wholesale energy market, in so far as this information is likely to have a significant effect on the prices of wholesale energy products; and
• other information that a market participant would be likely to use as part of the basis of its decision to enter into a transaction relating to, or to issue an order to trade in, a wholesale energy product

According to the “Market Monitoring and Reporting Rules”, inside information is determined by the following four criteria:

inside information’ means information of a precise nature (1) which has not been made public (2), which relates, directly or indirectly, to one or more wholesale energy products (3) and which, if it were made public, would be likely to significantly affect the prices of those wholesale energy products (4).

It is the responsibility of market participants to determine whether the information they hold is inside information under the four cumulative conditions mentioned above and to disclose it following the requirements of the rules.

Inside information creates asymmetric information between market participants. Disclosure/publication of information ensures market transparency and unity.

Obligation to disclose inside information;

A market participant has an obligation to disclose inside information not only in relation to its activities but also in relation to the market participant's parent or related undertaking.

In addition, the disclosure obligation is related to the inside information associating not only to the activities owned by the undertaking but also to the activities that it controls or for which the undertaking is completely or partially responsible.

Disclosure refers to information on production, storage, consumption, and transmission of electricity or natural gas, or the technical capabilities of liquefied natural gas appliances and their use, including planned and unplanned unavailability.

The disclosure obligation does not apply to a person or entity that holds inside information about another market participant or its activities unless the holder of that information is a parent or related undertaking.

How and where inside information is published

Wholesale energy market participants publish inside information related to the electricity sector on the website of the Georgian Energy Exchange.

Inside information may be additionally published on the website of the relevant wholesale energy market participant or another informational website.

The wholesale energy market participant must disclose inside information in a timely manner. According to the ACER guidelines, "timely manner" usually means as soon as possible, but no later than one hour, unless otherwise stated in the rules. In any case, inside information should be published before the wholesale energy products related to this information are traded or someone else is recommended to trade with the wholesale product to which this inside information relates.

Delayed disclosure

According to Paragraph 3 of Article 53 of the Rules, in exceptional cases, the undertaking is entitled to delay the disclosure of inside information by their responsibility, in a manner that does not harm the public interest and mislead the public, provided that it ensures the confidentiality of inside information and this information will not be used to make decisions when trading wholesale energy products. In such a case, the undertaking shall immediately provide the information to the Commission, together with the justification for the delay in disclosure in a timely manner.

In addition, the undertaking is entitled to delay the disclosure of sensitive information related to critical infrastructure and the need to improve their protection, if this is provided by law.

The wholesale energy market participant shall submit to the Commission a notice of delay in disclosure of inside information in accordance with  Annex 1.7 of the Rules.