The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has upheld the judgments of the General Court of the European Union of December 2023 (see EUROPE 13318/26) which validated the decision (C(2019)1711) of the European Commission approving a concentration operation (out of three transactions in total) between the German energy companies RWE and E.ON, in a judgment handed down on Thursday 19 March (joined cases C-171/24 P to C-177/24 P, cases C-178/24 P and C-179/24 P).
This operation relates specifically to the acquisition, by E.ON, of the distribution and retail energy business, and certain generation assets of innogy, a subsidiary of RWE.
Nine German municipal authorities had brought appeals before the CJEU against the General Court’s judgments. In particular, it had ruled that the exchange of assets between independent undertakings does not constitute a ‘single concentration’ within the meaning of EU competition law.
After upholding, in June 2025, the validity of a first operation involving the purchase of E.ON’s renewable and nuclear power generation assets by RWE (see EUROPE 13668/24), the CJEU dismissed the appeals against the General Court’s judgments of December 2023.
In particular, the CJEU confirms that the three asset swaps between RWE and E.ON, as a whole, do not constitute a ‘single concentration’. In its view, it is not a question of several intermediate operations carried out in order for control over one or more undertakings to be gained by the same undertaking or undertakings.
See the judgment of the Court of Justice (in French): https://aeur.eu/f/l9a (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)