The Bracewell U.S. Futures Exchanges Disciplinary Actions Report is a monthly report that provides summaries of certain disciplinary notices by U.S. exchanges during the prior month. The report has a particular focus on notices potentially relevant to energy commodities and is not intended to be a comprehensive review of each and every notice issued. Instead, the report is intended to provide market participants, and compliance personnel in particular, with illustrative examples of rule violations and to bring to light enforcement trends across the exchanges. The disciplinary notices cited in...

Historically, Sections 205 [1] and 206 [2] of the Federal Power Act (“FPA”) have been viewed as authorizing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) to order refunds when a rate has been suspended and placed in effect subject to refund pursuant to Section 205 or a refund effective date has been established pursuant to Section 206. It has long been held, however, that the filed rate doctrine and the related rule against retroactive ratemaking bar the Commission from imposing retroactive rate increases or surcharges for previously provided service. This longstanding...