France: Antitrust body orders Engie prices to reflect costs

France’s competition authority ordered Engie on Monday to raise its natural gas prices for companies, saying that in some cases the energy company appeared to be selling gas at below cost and so harming competitors.

The antitrust body’s investigation followed a complaint by Engie competitor Direct Energie in October, which argued some of Engie’s market offers were anti-competitive.

“It has become clear that Engie’s price offers could in certain cases be qualified as predatory pricing and could push other players out of the market,” the authority said, adding it was also launching an investigation into Engie’s price practices for residential customers.

Since the opening of the French gas market in 2007, former monopoly Engie continues to sell gas to retail customers at regulated tariffs set by energy regulator CRE, but also sells gas at unregulated prices to retail and corporate customers in competition with new market entrants.

In June 2015, Engie had 79 percent of the residential French gas market and 63 percent of the non-residential market, according to an antitrust body document about the ruling.

The Autorite de la Concurrence antitrust body said that, according to CRE, part of the commercial costs of Engie’s unregulated gas prices for residential customers was subsidised by Engie’s gas sales at regulated prices.

Full Content: Reuters

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