ENERGY - GERMANY
Big energy suppliers bent competition rules
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Germany's four biggest electricity suppliers repeatedly took recourse to illegal anti-competition measures between 2003 and 2006.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
By AFP
Der Spiegel news magazine reported that EON, RWE, EnBW (of which France's EDF owns 45 percent) and the Swedish company Vattenfall Europe are suspected by German authorities of operating like a cartel and even of fixing energy prices.
The magazine quoted a report compiled last year by Germany's anti-cartel office as saying that competition in the energy market was suppressed "in an impressive manner" by "cooperation running counter to anti-cartel laws".
The report was compiled in cooperation with European Union investigators, Der Spiegel said.
It reported that directors of the four companies, which supply about 80 percent of the electricity market in Germany, regularly held secret meetings where they made agreements on strategic issues.
"Instead of competing with each other, the four big suppliers agreed on strategies, prices and supply regions with the consent, or even at the orders of their bosses."
It added the secret cooperation "worked so well" that the meetings became a regular institution to which members of other European companies in the energy sector, notably from Belgium, France and Italy, were invited.
Spiegel said the report singled out EON, the leader in the German energy sector, as having sought to fix prices.
The company at the weekend rejected the allegations, saying the anti-cartel office's report had been known for some time but that it contained no incriminating evidence and that its accusations were impossible to prove.
"We have never in any way sought to fix prices," the company said.
The magazine quoted a report compiled last year by Germany's anti-cartel office as saying that competition in the energy market was suppressed "in an impressive manner" by "cooperation running counter to anti-cartel laws".
The report was compiled in cooperation with European Union investigators, Der Spiegel said.
It reported that directors of the four companies, which supply about 80 percent of the electricity market in Germany, regularly held secret meetings where they made agreements on strategic issues.
"Instead of competing with each other, the four big suppliers agreed on strategies, prices and supply regions with the consent, or even at the orders of their bosses."
It added the secret cooperation "worked so well" that the meetings became a regular institution to which members of other European companies in the energy sector, notably from Belgium, France and Italy, were invited.
Spiegel said the report singled out EON, the leader in the German energy sector, as having sought to fix prices.
The company at the weekend rejected the allegations, saying the anti-cartel office's report had been known for some time but that it contained no incriminating evidence and that its accusations were impossible to prove.
"We have never in any way sought to fix prices," the company said.
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