Energi Danmark fined NOK 7.5 million for erroneous trades (RME, 2024)
RME's decision of 5 December 2024 imposed NOK 7.5 million for two erroneous trades and, for the first incident, undisclosed corrective trading. It found manipulation in the North Sea Link and NO2 auctions, failure to publish inside information and insider trading under Norway's NEM rules.
On this page
The decision
- Authority
- Norwegian Energy Regulatory Authority (RME) (RME), Norway
- Published
- 9 December 2024
- Participants
- Energi Danmark A/S
- Commodity
- Electricity
- Market
- North Sea Link (NSL) auction and the NO2 day-ahead auction
- Conduct period
- Delivery days 2 and 20 February 2022 (orders placed the preceding days)
- REMIT equivalent
- Article 3 (Insider trading), Article 4 (Disclosure of inside information), Article 5 (Market manipulation)
- Legal basis
- Norwegian NEM regulation, chapter 5 (mirrors REMIT Articles 3, 4 and 5)
- Penalty
- NOK 7,500,000
- Status
- Decision allows appeal to the Energy Appeals Board within three weeks of receipt
What RME found
The first incident concerned delivery on 2 February 2022. Energi Danmark normally bought and sold equal volumes in the North Sea Link auction for a British guarantees-of-origin arrangement. RME found that a manual error left 350 MWh per hour without the corresponding sale, or 8,400 MWh over the day. The company then reduced its purchases in the subsequent NO2 day-ahead auction to restore its position, without telling the market about the error or planned correction.
The second incident concerned delivery on 20 February. RME found that the trader responsible for the NO2 auction received the previous day's North Sea Link results and based the orders on those figures. The error totalled 1,955.7 MWh across 15 hours. Energi Danmark published a market message at 13:15 on 19 February, within an hour of the auction results, and subsequently traded intraday to correct the imbalance.
How it was established
RME examined order data and the company's explanations, then reconstructed the auctions with corrected volumes. For the first incident it estimated North Sea Link price increases of roughly 1-7%. In the second it estimated increases of 3.3-5.8% in hours 6-9 in the common NO1, NO2 and NO5 price area. It found hours 10 and 24 capable of misleading despite a small actual effect, while excluding nine smaller hourly errors from its manipulation finding.
Energi Danmark argued that internal procedural errors were not market abuse, that taking positions between auctions was legitimate and that prompt disclosure should prevent a manipulation finding. RME rejected those arguments: these orders did not reflect the company's intended trading interest, the manipulation test was objective and disclosure was a separate obligation. RME also clarified that an imbalance alone did not establish a breach.
What the decision turned on
For the first incident, RME held that the error and planned 350 MWh hourly correction were precise, non-public information likely to affect prices significantly. It found that correcting the position in the next auction before publication used that information and breached the insider-trading prohibition, even though the company lost money. For the second incident it accepted that the disclosure obligation had been met.
RME imposed one NOK 7.5 million fine for all four breaches. It found negligence in controls over large orders and inside information, noting two substantial errors only 18 days apart. It treated the first event as more serious because undisclosed corrective trading compounded it. It mitigated for absence of deliberate pursuit of gain and proper disclosure of the second error, while considering financial capacity and prevention. RME estimated EUR 451,000 in additional buyer costs but acknowledged overestimation and gave that figure little weight. The decision allowed appeal within three weeks of receipt.
For a surveillance function
RME's decision requires two separate assessments after an error: whether the order misled the market, and whether information about the error and proposed correction must be disclosed before further trading. Its reasoning rejects the assumption that a loss-making correction cannot be insider trading.
Sources
- RME, Energi Danmark - Vedtak om overtredelsesgebyr, 5 December 2024 (Decision, in Norwegian)
- RME, Energi Danmark faar gebyr paa 7,5 millioner, 9 December 2024 (Press release, in Norwegian)
Sources read on 27 October 2026. This page restates what the authority published and adds no finding of its own. A decision under appeal is not final, and its status may have changed since: check the source before relying on it.