Brussels, 05/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 5 March, the European Commission imposed fines totalling €5.979 million on the two main European spot power exchanges (organised markets for trading electricity) - EPEX Spot (EPEX, France) and Nord Pool Spot (NPS, Norway) - for having agreed not to compete with one another for their spot electricity trading services in the European Economic Area (EEA). Such behaviour breaches EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive practices (under Article 101 of the EU Treaty and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement).
The infringement took place in the context of discussions to establish the Internal Energy Market (IEM), a Commission initiative aimed at fully integrating national electricity markets. When exploring a joint approach on the technical systems to be used for cross-border trade, EPEX and NPS also agreed not to compete with each other and to allocate European territories between them. The infringement lasted for at least seven months in 2011-2012, ending when the Commission and the EFTA Surveillance Authority carried out unannounced inspections at the companies' premises. The anticompetitive contacts took the form of physical meetings, telephone and video calls and e-mails.
The two power exchanges decided to cooperate with the Commission, which therefore reduced their fines by 10% to €3.651 million for EPEX and €2.328 million for NPS. (FG)