The European Commission Thursday escalated its antitrust case against French state-controlled natural gas operator Gaz de France (1020848.FR) and German Energy company E.ON AG (EOA.XE), sending formal charges to the companies on suspicion they had agreed to stay out of each other's home markets for the supply of gas.
The companies' alleged agreement not to sell gas in each other's home markets concerns in particular supplies of natural gas transported over the MEGAL pipeline, which is jointly owned by E.ON and GdF and transports gas across southern Germany between the German-Czech and German-Austrian borders on the one side and the French-German border on the other.
The charges are the latest step in the commission's continued battle to force European vertically integrated utilities to divest their supply grids, the possession of which the commission sees as a cause for the continued lack of competition in the European energy markets.
GfD confirmed that it had received the charges and would "continue to provide the European Commission with all the information it requires in the course of this inquiry."
E.ON, through its subsidiary E.ON Ruhrgas AG, and GdF are the leading suppliers of natural gas in Germany and France, and two of the largest players in the European gas industry, the commission said.
The commission first started formally investigating the companies in July 2007, following dawn raids at the companies' premises carried out in 2006.
These antitrust charges in the form of a "statement of objections," mean the commission believes it has enough against the companies to deepen the investigation.
It has now informed the companies in writing over the charges it has against them, and the companies have the right to written and oral responses.
Both companies have a history with the commission's antitrust enforcer.
GdF was charged by the commission in May of also under-investing in the national distribution grid, while E.ON is in the middle of making a deal with the commission to sell some of its power capacity and electricity grids as a response to antitrust charges.
European energy ministers last Friday agreed to a limited unbundling of energy supply from transmission grids. The solution was seen as a compromise by the commission, which was pushing for full separation.