Final Report of the Hearing Officer — Upstream gas supplies in Central and Eastern Europe (AT.39816)
Date: 2018-05-02
Institutions: Directorate-General for Competition, European Commission
Subjects: Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern European countries, control of restrictive practices, dominant position, gas supply, natural gas, price of energy, restrictive trade practice








C_2018258EN.01000501.xml










23.7.2018   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 258/5





Final Report of the Hearing Officer (1)

Upstream gas supplies in Central and Eastern Europe
(AT.39816)
(2018/C 258/06)

(1)   

The draft Commitments Decision under Article 9(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 (2) is addressed to PJSC Gazprom and its wholly-owned subsidiary Gazprom export LLC (together ‘Gazprom’).



(2)   

Following an ex officio investigation started on 27 September 2011, the Commission initiated proceedings against Gazprom on 31 August 2012 in respect of suspected anti-competitive practices relating to upstream gas supplies in eight Central and Eastern European countries.



(3)   

In the Statement of Objections dated 22 April 2015 (‘the SO’) the Commission came to the provisional conclusion that Gazprom had infringed Article 102 TFEU and Article 54 EEA by abusing its dominant position on the Bulgarian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish and Slovak markets for the upstream wholesale supply of natural gas by producers and exporters to importers and wholesalers.



(4)   

Gazprom received access to the Commission file on 8 May and 17 June 2015 and submitted its response to the SO on 28 September 2015, disputing the Commission’s preliminary assessment and requesting an oral hearing.



(5)   

The oral hearing took place on 15 December 2015.



(6)   

On 14 February 2017, Gazprom submitted commitments (‘the Initial Commitments’), while continuing to dispute the Commission’s preliminary assessment as set out in the SO.



(7)   

On 16 March 2017, the Commission published a communication pursuant to Article 27(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, summarising the case and the Initial Commitments and inviting third parties to give their observations within seven weeks of its publication.



(8)   

The Commission received 44 sets of observations. The Commission informed Gazprom of the observations received and, in light of them, Gazprom submitted revised commitments (‘the Commitments’) on 15 March 2018.



(9)   

The Commission has now come to the conclusion that, in view of the Commitments, the proceedings in this case should be brought to an end.



(10)   

I have not received any request or complaint with respect to the proposed Commitments (3).



(11)   

Pursuant to Article 16 of Decision 2011/695/EU, I have examined whether the draft decision deals only with objections in respect of which Gazprom has been afforded the opportunity of making known its views, and I have come to a positive conclusion.



(12)   

In conclusion, I consider that the effective exercise of Gazprom’s procedural rights has been respected.



Brussels, 2 May 2018.

Wouter WILS




(1)  Pursuant to Articles 16 and 17 of Decision 2011/695/EU of the President of the European Commission of 13 October 2011 on the function and terms of reference of the hearing officer in certain competition proceedings (OJ L 275, 20.10.2011, p. 29) (‘Decision 2011/695/EU’).

(2)  Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 of 16 December 2002 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty (OJ L 1, 4.1.2003, p. 1) (‘Regulation (EC) No 1/2003’).

(3)  According to Article 15(1) of Decision 2011/695/EU, parties to the proceedings offering commitments pursuant to Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 may call upon the Hearing Officer at any stage of the procedure in order to ensure the effective exercise of their procedural rights.