Proceedings against district heating suppliers concluded

The Bundeskartellamt has concluded its proceedings on abusive pricing against district heating suppliers. In a number of supply areas the suppliers have offered commitments in response to the authority's concerns about abusively excessive price increases between 2010 and 2012. The customers affected will benefit from reimbursements or future price reductions amounting to approx. 55 million euros in total.

In March 2013 the Bundeskartellamt had initiated proceedings against seven companies or company groups (see press release of 7 March 2013). Following the termination of the first two proceedings in 2015, the remaining proceedings have now been concluded. The suspicion of excessive pricing could not be confirmed in some supply areas.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: "The compensation of approx. 55 million euros is good news for the consumers affected. It is extremely difficult to prove that a price in the district heating sector is abusively excessive under competition law. At the same time, consumers in this sector are particularly vulnerable. They usually have no opportunity to switch to another district heating supplier. Even switching to another form of heating is only possible, if at all, after longer periods of time and is not without considerable costs."

The commitment decisions of 13 February 2017 apply to the following district heating networks:

• innogy SE (as the legal successor of RWE Energiedienstleistungen GmbH): District heating networks of Bensberg-Refrath, Dortmund-Schüren, Dortmund-Kirchlinde, Elmshorn, Hanhoopsfeld, Hochdahl, Langen-Oberlinden, Leverkusen-Steinbüchel, Mainz-Rodelberg, Marmstorf, Monheim, Moers-Kapellen, Rahlstedt-Meiendorferstr., Rahlstedt-Ost, Schwalbach-Limes, Unna-Königsborn, Wuppertal-Hilgershöhe,
• Bitterfelder Fernwärme GmbH: District heating networks BBS, Braustraße und Fläminger Ufer in Bitterfeld,
• Danpower Energie Service GmbH: Munich Olympiazentrum and Puchheim-Planie district heating networks,
• EKT Energie- und Kommunal-Technologie GmbH: Großenhain-Kupferberg district heating network,
• Wärmeversorgung Wolgast GmbH: Wolgast district heating network.

innogy SE's share of the total reimbursement amount is 12.3 million euros. Most of its customers will have their respective reimbursement amounts credited in their next two annual statements. As the supply of district heating in Mainz-Rodelberg and Unna-Königsborn has in the meantime been taken over by local suppliers, these will receive the respective amounts from innogy, which they will pass on to the customers in these supply areas.

The volume of reimbursements to be paid by the other companies mentioned above, which all belong to the Danpower group, amounts to about two million euros. The reimbursements will be granted in the form of a separate credit in their next annual statements. In a commitment agreement with the Bundeskartellamt, the Leipzig municipal utility, Stadtwerke Leipzig GmbH, was already obliged in October 2015 to implement future price reductions amounting to a total volume of around 40.8 million euros (see press release of 16 October 2015). This commitment is already being implemented in accordance with the authority's commitment decision.

No formal decision was issued in the proceeding against HanseWerk Natur GmbH (as the legal successor of E.ON Hanse Wärme GmbH). In the supply areas concerned, Verbund Ost (in Hamburg) and Wahlstedt, the company had meanwhile modified its pricing system resulting in overall price reductions, and in doing so had changed its price adjustment formulas, in particular by substituting oil indices with gas indices.

Likewise, the proceeding against Dalkia GmbH could already be terminated without a formal decision in 2015 on account of structural disadvantages in a small supply area in Bremen and price reductions which the company implemented at that time.

Any initial suspicion of abusive pricing during the period examined against Energie SaarLorLux AG, Saarbrücken, and the Rostock municipal utility, Stadtwerke Rostock AG, could not be confirmed. The proceedings were therefore terminated.

Due to the commitments undertaken by the companies, further investigations and ensuing long-term legal disputes could be avoided. The commitment decisions under Section 32b of the German Competition Act (GWB) will be published on the Bundeskartellamt's website once business secrets have been removed.