Proceedings against gas suppliers of household and commercial customers – first proceedings concluded

Six regional gas suppliers, which are majority-owned by the E.ON Group, have agreed to make certain financial commitments to the Bundeskartellamt which will amount to 55 Mio. € and will be to the benefit of their customers. The agreement includes that a price rise for the coming heating period that had been planned for a considerable time will be postponed by two months from October to December. In addition, with their next heating bill, customers will be granted a bonus of, on average, 35 €. In return, the Bundeskartellamt has discontinued its investigations against the regional gas suppliers. These are E.ON Hanse, E.ON Avacon, E.ON Mitte, E.ON edis, E.ON Thüringer Energie and E.ON Bayern. Their customers will benefit directly from the amount mentioned above.

In March, the Bundeskartellamt had initiated proceedings against 35 regional gas suppliers on suspicion of excessive gas prices charged to household and small commercial customers. The proceedings concern the pricing policy of the years 2007 and 2008 and were instituted, inter alia, on the basis of the new Section 29 ARC which provides for a stricter abuse control of energy suppliers.

Price comparisons for the years 2007 and 2008 have revealed that the regional gas suppliers concerned rank in the middle of the range of companies against which abuse proceedings have been instituted. According to the Bundeskartellamt’s findings, the profitability of the companies concerned does not allow for any further concessions.

The Bundeskartellamt and E.ON continue to have different opinions on the issue; the agreement was reached nevertheless to avoid lengthy legal disputes.

The Bundeskartellamt is the competent authority for approx. 5% of the gas suppliers with approx. 15% of the gas customers. The remaining 95% of the gas suppliers and 85% of the gas customers fall under the responsibility of the Land competition authorities. Several of the proceedings against the 35 regional gas suppliers were referred from the Land competition authorities to the Bundeskartellamt. Among these was also one of the E.ON subsidiary companies affected by the above-mentioned agreement.

Further results of the pending proceedings will soon be published as well.