The European Commission has imposed fines totalling € 5,979,000 on the two leading European spot power exchanges, EPEX Spot ("EPEX") of France and Nord Pool Spot (NPS) of Norway for breaching EU antitrust rules. The two companies had agreed not to compete with one another for their spot electricity trading services in the European Economic Area (EEA). Bothe NPS and EPEX received a fine reduction of 10% each for agreeing to settle the case with the Commission.
As Joaquín Almunia, Commission Vice-President in charge of competition policy, said: “Power exchanges are central to an efficient functioning of electricity markets. In times when most European consumers are concerned by their rising electricity bills, I am particularly satisfied that we have brought to an end the market sharing agreement between EPEX and Nord Pool Spot."
And he added: “…preserving healthy competition between power exchanges and between traders contributes to ensuring that electricity markets operate as efficiently as they should. Ultimately, this prevents consumers from paying unjustified and unnecessary extra costs. This matters at a time when most European citizens are concerned by their rising electricity bills.”
The two power exchanges had agreed not to compete with one another by allocating territories between themselves thus creating a cartel, a practice that is prohibited by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and the EEA Agreement. The anti-competitive agreements lasted at least seven months in 2011-2012.
The Commission reduced the fines imposed on both companies by 10% as they acknowledged their participation in the infringement and their liability. Consequently, NPS is asked to pay a fine of €2,328,000, while EPEX will pay €3,651,000.
Fine on Romania’s OPCOM
The European Commission has also imposed a fine of just over €1 million on S.C. OPCOM S.A., the Romanian power exchange, and its mother company Transelectrica, for discriminating against EU electricity traders and thus breaching EU antitrust rules.
According to Commission findings, between 2008 and 2013, OPCOM violated the basic principles of the Single Market by requiring members of the spot electricity markets to have a Romanian VAT registration and refusing to accept traders that were already registered for VAT in other EU Member States. As a result, EU traders could only enter the Romanian wholesale electricity market by setting up a fixed establishment in Romania, which entailed additional costs and organisational disadvantages for EU traders compared to Romanian traders.