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On Wednesday April 22, the European Commission has sent a Statement of Objections to the national Russian gas company Gazprom, alleging that some alleging that some of its business practices in Central and Eastern European gas markets constitute an abuse of its dominant market position in breach of EU antitrust rules. These practices led to higher prices in eight Member States (Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia).
In the Commission preliminary findings, Gazprom’s abusive strategy has consisted in imposing territorial restrictions, including export bans and destination clauses, unfair pricing policy through oil indexation and conditioning gas supplies to obtaining commitments from wholesalers concerning gas transport infrastructures.
Gazprom now has 12 weeks to reply to the Statement of Objections and can also request an oral hearing to present its arguments.
EU Commissioner in charge of competition policy Margrethe Vestager said:
"Gas is an essential commodity in our daily life: it heats our homes, we use it for cooking and to produce electricity. Maintaining fair competition in European gas markets is therefore of utmost importance.
All companies that operate in the European market – no matter if they are European or not – have to play by our EU rules.”
The present Commissioner Almunia has opened the formal proceedings against Gazprom on 31 August 2012, but was prevented from sending the statement already last September due to the Ukrainian crisis.
For more information:
European Commission Press Release
European Commission Fact Sheet
Statement by Gazprom
