The European wholesale energy market is being placed under the microscope for abuse and manipulation during the energy crisis.

ACER, Europe’s Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, is assembling a transboundary investigation team for this purpose, with assistance from the Austrian, Dutch and German regulatory authorities for energy.

These authorities intend to examine a series of cases suggesting speculative trading linked to the TTF benchmark and management of gas storage infrastructure, especially regarding transactions that involve Russia’s Gazprom.

As underlined in a relevant statement issued by ACER, high prices and high volatility in wholesale energy markets have prompted the European agency and national energy regulators to reinforce their monitoring in an effort to identify and sanction possible cases of market abuse.