German Watchdog Raids EnBW Over Abuse Of Market Position

EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG is currently under investigation by German authorities for potential abuse of power in the power market in 2021, resulting in increased electricity prices.

EnBW’s offices were raided by the Police, the Federal Cartel Office, and the Mannheim prosecutor’s office on January 25th. The utility and the cartel office confirmed the raid on Monday. The investigation aimed to determine whether EnBW had misused its dominant market position to sell power at prices that were too high. This was stated in a press release by the cartel office.

“ENBW is confident that the allegations made will not be confirmed and has a great interest in an unconditional, comprehensive, complete and rapid clarification of the facts,” a spokeswoman for ENBW told Montel.

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As this was an ongoing investigation, the spokeswoman said ENBW could not provide any further information at this time.

“The Federal Cartel Office, together with the Mannheim public prosecutor’s office and the criminal investigation department, searched an energy supplier [today],” a spokesman for the cartel office told Montel.

“[It] investigated suspicions that the company had at times sold balancing energy at abusively excessive prices by exploiting a dominant position,” he said, noting the search warrant presumed initial suspicions of a violation of competition law.

“Until the conclusion of the proceedings, the presumption of innocence applies,” he added.