Following an investigation, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is concerned 11 traders may have hindered competition in commodity futures markets and infringed competition law by exchanging potentially sensitive information about their trading and/or coordinating their trading strategies with each other.

The Parties subject to the FCA’s Investigation are:

• James Biagioni
• George Commins
• Paul Commins
• Aristos Demetriou
• Henry Lunn
• Elliott Pickering
• Christopher Roase
• Nicholas Stewart
• Paul Sutton
• Matthew Thompson
• Connor Younger

The traders have proposed commitments to change the way they handle sensitive information, undertake annual competition law training and arrange a £1 million ex gratia payment. The money will be given to the Crisis and Resilience Fund, which provides support to low-income families and individuals in financial hardship.

The individuals under investigation were day traders in global commodity futures markets. Day traders play an important role in maintaining competition by providing liquidity and absorbing risk from other participants. For the markets to be competitive, trading decisions on commodity futures must be made independently.

The FCA has reached no view on whether competition law has been breached. Offering commitments does not amount to an admission of competition law infringement and the traders have made no such admission in this case.

The regulator considers the commitments offered by the traders address the competition concerns it identified. The financial commitment is likely to exceed any penalty the FCA could impose on the individuals following any infringement finding. Under competition law, financial penalties are capped by reference to the turnover of an individual or business in the financial year before any infringement decision.

The FCA is consulting on the commitments package before reaching a final decision on whether to accept it and close the investigation. The consultation is now open and ends 14 July 2026. To speak with the FCA on the proposed commitments, please email: CA98.2023.01@fca.org.uk.