European gas supply market: the European Commission charges Gazprom for alleged abuse of dominant position

The European Commission has sent today, 22 April 2015, a Statement of Objections to Gazprom for alleged abuse of dominant position on the Central and Eastern European gas supply market, contrary to EU antitrust rules. Investigations started in September 2012 and resulted in today's decision. Gazprom has now 12 weeks to answer the Statement of Objections.

 

The Commission is suspecting that:

"Gazprom is breaking EU antitrust rules by pursuing an overall strategy to partition Central and Eastern European gas markets, for example by reducing its customers’ ability to resell the gas cross-border. This may have enabled Gazprom to charge unfair prices in certain Member States. Gazprom may also have abused its dominant market position by making the supply of gas dependent on obtaining unrelated commitments from wholesalers concerning gas transport infrastructure."

Further comments will be published on this blog in the coming days.

 

By then, see the press release and the factsheet from the European Commission.

 

Photo credit: Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, Commissioner in charge of Competition @ European Union, 2015