Bulgaria’s competition
watchdog fined Austria’s
EVN and Czech CEZ a total of 5.99 million levs
($3.63 million) on Thursday for breaching competition rules.
The
Commission for
Protection of Competition imposed a combined fine of 3.79 million levs on
two Bulgarian power distribution and supply units of EVN. It also levied a
combined fine of 2.19 million levs on two units of CEZ.
The watchdog, which opened
its investigation in July, said the companies breached the rules by
discriminating against independent traders and restricting electricity trading
at freely negotiated prices.
Both CEZ and
EVNdenied any wrongdoing and said they would appeal the fines.
"We will definitely appeal.
We do not agree with the sanctions imposed,” spokeswoman for CEZ Bulgaria said.
EVN
’s regional manager for Bulgaria
Robert Dick said the fines were ungrounded and warned that the ruling sent a
negative signal to foreign investors.
"We find those fines unfair
and unjustified,” Dick told a news conference. "These penalties are a bad
signal about the foreign investors in Bulgaria,” he said.
In a separate ruling a few
hours later Bulgaria’s Commission for Energy and Water Regulation imposed
another combined fine of 6 million levs on
EVN after clients complained
that their electric metres had been changed without notification.
In response,
EVNsaid the energy regulator’s sanction was "obvious excess”.
"The disproportion of the
sanction leads to conclusions about abuse of power and pressure of state
institutions against one of the biggest investors in Bulgaria,” Kalina
Trifonova, deputy chairman of
EVN Bulgaria’s managing board, said.
The regulator said it would
give more details on the its rulings against
EVN on Friday.
Electricity bills are
politically sensitive in Bulgaria and protests against high prices toppled a
previous government in 2013.
The competition watchdog
argued that both
EVN and CEZ had applied a common strategy and practices
to discriminate against traders that did not belong to their energy groups.
The watchdog has also
investigated a third power distributor in the Balkan country, Czech Energo-Pro,
and said it would publish its findings on Friday.
The competition watchdog
had fined the three foreign power distributors in 2015 for charging
unreasonably high prices for the use of the low-voltage grid, restricting
competition and acting against the interests of consumers.
EVN
, CEZ and Energo-Pro have all opened
international arbitration proceedings against Bulgaria, seeking hundreds of
millions of euros from the country after a series of regulatory decisions
linked with the pricing of electricity.
(novinite.com)