Who needs to comply with Swiss BATE?

BATE applies to a broad range of companies participating in wholesale electricity and gas markets. This includes:

• Energy trading companies and trading houses: Swiss and foreign businesses trading electricity, gas or related derivatives with a Swiss connection.
• Energy producers and suppliers: Including utilities, municipal energy companies and electricity generation businesses.
• Market intermediaries: Brokers and operators of organised energy markets.
• Network and infrastructure operators: Including transmission, distribution, gas transport and energy storage operators.
• Balance group managers: Companies managing balancing responsibilities within the energy market.
• Very large energy consumers: End consumers whose annual consumption capacity reaches at least 600 GWh, where the relevant contracts fall within scope.

Do smaller energy companies also need to comply?

Potentially, yes. BATE does not establish a general minimum company-size threshold for registration.

Some contracts and activities benefit from exclusions, exemptions or simplified reporting arrangements. These depend on the type of activity, product and market participant, rather than company size alone.

For example, certain contracts for physical electricity production from smaller generating facilities may only need to be reported on request.

A smaller utility or municipal energy company should therefore assess its trading activity rather than assume it falls outside the regulation.

Does BATE apply to companies outside Switzerland?

Yes. A company does not need to be based in Switzerland to fall within BATE.

Foreign businesses trading Swiss wholesale electricity or gas products may be subject to registration, transaction reporting and other applicable requirements.

Under Article 6 BATE, participants based outside Switzerland that fall within the Swiss-market scope must also appoint a representative in Switzerland.

This is particularly relevant for European energy traders and other international market participants with cross-border trading activity.

How does BATE transaction reporting work?

BATE reporting follows many of the principles familiar to companies already reporting under EU REMIT. However, reporting responsibilities depend on whether transactions take place on an organised market or are agreed bilaterally.

Standard contracts traded on organised markets

For standard contracts traded on an organised market, such as an exchange, the organised market operator is responsible for reporting the relevant transactions.

Market participants should nevertheless confirm which information their market operator reports and identify any remaining obligations.

Bilateral OTC and non-standard contracts

For standard contracts traded outside an organised market (off-OMP), including bilateral over-the-counter (OTC) trades, and for non-standard contracts, reporting is generally the responsibility of the market participant.

Companies can transmit reports themselves through an authorised reporting mechanism or delegate transmission to another party, including a counterparty or reporting provider.

Delegating reporting transmission does not remove the participant's responsibility for overseeing its reporting obligations.

What are the BATE reporting timeframes?

Article 19 VATE establishes different reporting windows according to contract type.

These timeframes apply once the relevant reporting obligation has taken effect. The starting point for calculating the deadline depends on the type of transaction or event.

Do companies already reporting under REMIT need to report to ElCom?

Yes, where the applicable Swiss reporting obligations require it. BATE does not replace EU REMIT. Companies operating across both markets may need to provide information to both ACER and ElCom.

For Swiss-based participants already required to submit information under EU rules, BATE provides for the corresponding information to be submitted to ElCom at the same time and in the same format.

This creates an opportunity to reuse existing trading data, integrations and reporting processes rather than build a separate workflow for Switzerland.

What about derivatives already reported under FinfraG?

BATE includes an exclusion for transaction information already reported under the Swiss Financial Market Infrastructure Act (FinfraG).

This is intended to reduce duplicate reporting. Companies should check whether their specific derivatives and existing reporting arrangements qualify.