Final report of the Hearing Officer — Case COMP/39.316 — GDF gas foreclosure
Date: 2009-11-17
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: France, audit, dominant position, energy grid, gas supply, market-sharing agreement, merger control, natural gas, report, restriction on competition








C_2010057EN.01001201.xml










9.3.2010   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 57/12





Final report of the Hearing Officer (1)

Case COMP/39.316 — GDF gas foreclosure
The draft Decision presented to the Commission under Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 (2) relates to the alleged foreclosure of downstream supply markets for natural gas in France by Gaz de France Suez S.A. and its subsidiaries GRTgaz S.A. and Elengy S.A. (hereafter collectively referred to as ‘GDF’). In particular, the foreclosure would be the result of long-term reservation of most of France's import capacity; the procedures for allocating import capacity in the new Fos Cavaou liquefied natural gas terminal; and the strategic limitation of investments in additional import capacity in the Montoir de Bretagne liquefied natural gas terminal.
The Commission opened proceedings on 16 May 2008 and adopted a preliminary assessment as referred to in Article 9(1) on 22 June 2009. On 24 June 2009, GDF submitted commitments under Article 9(1) in order to address the Commission's competition concerns. The commitments essentially consist in a significant release of long-term import capacity and in the obligation to bring GDF's reservations below 50 % of total long-term import capacity at the latest in 2014 and to keep them at that level for ten years.
On 9 July 2009, the Commission published a notice pursuant to Article 27(4), summarizing the concerns and the commitments and inviting interested third parties to transmit observations on this notification within two months of its publication. The Commission received 23 responses from interested third parties. On 21 September 2009, the Commission informed GDF orally of the result of the market test. GDF did not request for any written access to the responses to the market test. On 21 October 2009, GDF submitted a revised proposal of commitments.
The Commission has now come to the conclusion that, in view of the commitments proposed by GDF, and without prejudice to Article 9(2), the proceedings should be brought to an end.
On 26 October 2009, GDF submitted a declaration to the Commission that it has received sufficient access to the information it considered necessary to propose commitments in order to meet the concerns expressed by the Commission.
No additional queries or submissions have been made to the Hearing Officer in connection with the present case by GDF or any third parties.
In the light of the above, I consider that the right to be heard has been respected in this case.

Brussels, 17 November 2009.

Karen WILLIAMS




(1)  Pursuant to Articles 15 and 16 of Commission Decision (2001/462/EC, ECSC) of 23 May 2001 on the terms of reference of Hearing Officers in certain competition proceedings (OJ L 162, 19.6.2001, p. 21).

(2)  In the following, all Articles and chapters referred to are those of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003.