Case C-618/25, Capital Gas Ship Management: Request for a preliminary ruling from the Symvoulio tis Epikrateias (Greece) lodged on 16 September 2025 – Capital Gas Ship Management Corp. v Eniaia Archi Dimosion Symvaseon (E.A.DI.SY.), Diacheiristis Ethnikou Systimatos Fysikou Aeriou A.E. (DESFA)
Date: 2025-09-16
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: award of contract, gas pipeline, natural gas, privatisation, public sector, regulatory policy, service concession, tendering








C_202600084EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2026/84


5.1.2026






Request for a preliminary ruling from the Symvoulio tis Epikrateias (Greece) lodged on 16 September 2025 – Capital Gas Ship Management Corp. v Eniaia Archi Dimosion Symvaseon (E.A.DI.SY.), Diacheiristis Ethnikou Systimatos Fysikou Aeriou A.E. (DESFA)


(Case C-618/25, Capital Gas Ship Management)

(C/2026/84)
Language of the case: Greek

Referring court

Symvoulio tis Epikrateias

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant: Capital Gas Ship Management Corp.

Defendants: Eniaia Archi Dimosion Symvaseon (E.A.DI.SY.), Diacheiristis Ethnikou Systimatos Fysikou Aeriou A.E. (DESFA)

Questions referred







1.


Must the first subparagraph of Article 4(3) of Directive 2014/25/EU (1) be interpreted as meaning that rights granted by statute to the Diacheiristis tou Ethnikou Systimatos (Metaforas) Fysikou Aeriou (operator of the national gas transmission system; ‘the NGTS’) and consisting of the operation, maintenance, management, exploitation and development of the NGTS, in conjunction with the operator’s statutory right of ownership over the NGTS, also conferred by law, constitute ‘special or exclusive rights’ where national law permits in parallel, with the authorisation of the regulatory authority concerned, the operation on the market for the transmission of natural gas of other independent systems (IGSs), but provides, first, that the criterion for the grant of an authorisation for an IGS is, in particular, that it is to serve areas not supplied with natural gas and, second, that it is possible to impose charges on IGS authorisation holders for the benefit of the national system operator or benefits in favour of owners of IGSs, to the detriment of the national system operator, for reasons connected with the economic efficiency of the operator?






—


If the first question is answered in the affirmative:














2.


Must the second and third subparagraphs of Article 4(3) of Directive 2014/25/EU be interpreted as meaning that the procedures in respect of which those provisions state that rights granted by means of those procedures do not constitute special or exclusive rights also include a procedure for the privatisation of a public undertaking which is the operator of the national gas (transmission) system where that procedure meets the conditions for ensuring adequate publicity and compliance with objective criteria, and where the procedure further provides that, in the corresponding call for expressions of interest, (i) economic operators interested in acquiring the undertaking must provide a brief description of their strategic plans for investing in the undertaking and the investment horizon sought (element taken into account at the stage of pre-selecting applicants), (ii) only transmission system operators certified in accordance with the procedure laid down in Articles 9 and 10 of Directive 2009/73 and which are members of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG), or persons controlled by or controlling such an operator, may participate in the procedure; and (iii) that as a consequence of the transfer of the majority of the shares of the public undertaking to a third economic operator, the national system operator, which was initially certified as an independent gas transmission operator, will be certified (as indeed it has been) as an ownership unbundled gas transmission system operator?






(1)  Directive 2014/25/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on procurement by entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors and repealing Directive 2004/17/EC (OJ 2014 L 94, p. 243).


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2026/84/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)