Dormant Contract Law and Legal Definition
According to 17 CFR 40.1 [Title 17 -- Commodity and Securities Exchanges; Chapter I -- Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Part 40 -- Provisions Common to Registered Entities], dormant contract or dormant product means:
“(1) Any agreement, contract, transaction, or instrument, or any commodity futures or option contract with respect to all future or option expiries that has no open interest and in which no trading has occurred for a period of twelve complete calendar months following a certification with, or approval by, the Commission; provided, however, that no contract or instrument under this paragraph (b)(1) initially and originally certified with, or approved by, the Commission within the preceding 36 complete calendar months shall be considered to be dormant; or
(2) Any commodity futures or option contract or other agreement, contract, transaction or instrument of a dormant designated contract market, derivatives transaction execution facility or derivatives clearing organization; or
(3) Any commodity futures or option contract or other agreement, contract, transaction or instrument not otherwise dormant that a designated contract market, derivatives transaction execution facility or derivatives clearing organization self-declares through certification to be dormant.”
