Kroes Slaps €1.11 Bln Fine on E.On Ruhrgas & GDF Suez

European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has imposed fines totalling €1 106 000 000 on E.ON AG and its subsidiary E.ON Ruhrgas AG (of Germany) and on GDF Suez SA (of France) for market sharing in breach of EC Treaty rules on cartels and restrictive business practices.

E.ON/E.ON Ruhrgas and GDF Suez are fined €553 000 000 each. Ruhrgas AG and Gaz de France agreed in 1975, when they decided to jointly build the MEGAL pipeline across Germany to import Russian gas into Germany and France, not to sell gas transported over this pipeline in each other's home markets. They maintained the market-sharing agreement after European gas markets were liberalised, and only abandoned it definitely in 2005.

Neelie Kroes, Commissioner in charge of Competition explained in a press conference that those actions denied French and German gas consumers the benefits of competition for many years. She added that this are the first Commission fines imposed for an anti-trust infringement in the energy sector and send a strong signal to energy incumbents that the Commission will not tolerate any form of anti-competitive behavior.

Source: EbS

Officlal announcement:

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1099&format...

AND


http://europa.eu/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=MEMO/...

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[ChronickProductions]

Kool

[RationalEmotive]

MILF!

[sarg1988]

YAY more money to spend on nice things :D