Realizing peer-to-peer trading in the electricity market in the EU and its Member States

In order to realise the energy transition towards a more sustainable, inclusive and just energy market, the traditional model of the electricity market, with big corporations producing electricity and passive consumers at the receiving end, is changing. These changes also require the adaptation of the existing legal framework to new market realities. In this regard, peer-to-peer (P2P) electricity trading has emerged as one mode to enable this transition. The International Renewable Energy Agency has defined the P2P model as “creat[ing] an online marketplace where prosumers and consumers can trade electricity, without an intermediary, at their agreed price”. This new innovation poses technical chal-lenges to the market and also requires changes in the underlying regulatory framework of these markets. More concretely, the fields of consumer (protec-tion) law, contract law, platform liability, data law, competition, and property law need to be revised in order to facilitate the innovation. The purpose of this contribution is to examine which legal obstacles P2P trading encounters. The article will start with some general reflections on these hurdles, followed by a specific focus on energy law in two Member States, Germany and the Nether-lands