FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)--Germany's Federal Cartel Office said Thursday that long-term bookings of transport capacity at cross-border gas grid entry points pose a risk for competition and that individual companies could eventually find themselves subject to market abuse investigations.
In a written statement, the cartel office said that long-term contracts for transport capacity at cross-border entry points often result in a lack of competition, especially in the downstream supply market. Such contracts are detering new competitors from entering the market because they often fail to secure adequate transport capacity to meet their supply obligations, the regulator said.
It said the findings of its gas transport market sector investigation, which it launched in February, would usually justify the initiation of market abuse investigations. However, it said it has decided to give the government time to adopt a planned change of law that will limit the duration of existing long-term contracts, making the individual investigations unnecessary.