argomento: News del mese - Diritto Internazionale e Comunitario

Articoli Correlati: Antitrust - dominant position - energy policy

On 22 February 2022, the E.U. Court, with its judgment in case T-616/18, rejected the appeal against the Commission decision that made the commitments presented by Gazprom mandatory to remedy the competitive concerns relating to the national upstream wholesale gas supply markets in the countries of central and eastern Europe. The decision that approved these commitments “is not vitiated by procedural or substantive errors”. The case refers to the 2018 decision by which Brussels approved and made binding the final commitments presented by Gazprom to remedy the abuse of a dominant position in order to prevent the free movement of gas. At stake were the territorial restrictions in the context of its gas supply contracts with wholesalers and with certain industrial customers which allowed Gazprom to conduct unfair pricing policies in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland by imposing excessive prices. Polish wholesaler Polskie Gornictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo appealed arguing that the Russian group’s commitments would be incomplete and insufficient. The Commission rejected it, considering among other things that its decision did not “go against the objectives of the Union’s energy policy”.