On 29 July 2022, ESMA published a Call for Evidence regarding a practice sometimes carried out by traders prior to the conclusion of contracts (so-called pre-hedging). 

The topic had already been addressed as part of the work on the review of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 ("MAR"). The ESMA Final Report containing the opinion for the European Commission of 23 September 2020 presented the views of market participants and indicated the need to provide the market with guidance on the subject.

The objective of the Call for Evidence is therefore to gather information and evidence on pre-hedging in order to support ESMA in developing guidance on the admissibility of such conduct in the context of MAR, as well as of Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 (so-called "MiFIR") and Directive 2014/65/EU (so-called "MiFID II").