Conduit does'nt work on mercenary

I equiped lochtonial caress on my merc and tested on blood aqueduc. The merc get charges thanks to the charges on kill but it doesn't transfer charges on me.

Same in the opposit direction, i equiped the gloves but the charges are not shared.

Is it intended? The mercenary does't count as party member?

From a Ziggy preview video, they are not considered party members. So Conduit and Ambu's Charge are the 2 items that do not work.

Since the video was recorded at GGG studio, I'm assuming they already know. Probably some backend reason as to why they are not real party members.