04/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - The decision adopted on Tuesday 4 May by the European Commission makes the commitments made by E.ON binding, with regard to the effective opening up of access to the German gas market to rival suppliers. It has taken this action in response to concerns about the company having unduly prevented access to its competitors by abusing its dominant market position. E.ON is committed to gradually freeing up substantial volumes of gas network entry point capacity and reducing its market share of gas pipelines on the NetConnect Germany network by 50% and by reducing its low value energy gas network to 64%. The notorious shortage in transport capacity, the majority of which was reserved for the German group in the long-term, limited market access for other gas providers and consequently penalised private and industrial consumers. Following the investigation, the Commission's preliminary conclusion explained that long-term capacity reservation for E.ON may be an infringement of EU rules on the abuse of dominant position. (F.G./transl.fl)