​The Competition Council conducted surprise inspections at Enel Romania, both at the group’s distribution companies and at the supply companies. The company is suspected of abusing its dominant position to the detriment of other retail suppliers and consumers. In practice, distribution companies would have limited competition in the market, favoring their own electricity suppliers.

The inspections took place as part of three investigations into possible abuses of the dominant position of electricity distribution operators in the Enel group in areas where they are licensed, the Council said in a statement.

In fact, the antimonopoly authority has indications that the distributors E-Distribuție Muntenia, E-Distribuție Banat and E-Distribuție Dobrogea, through a series of actions, limit competition in the market by favoring their own electricity suppliers, Enel Energie and Enel Energie Muntenia. to the detriment of other retail suppliers and consumers.

“We constantly monitor the activities of companies that occupy a dominant position, they bear special responsibility for the behavior adopted in relations with partners, precisely because they occupy a special position on the market. We are interested in the behavior of companies in the energy sector, especially in the context in which in recent years the Romanian state has taken measures to open the markets in this sector to competition,” said Bohdan Chiricau, President of Competition. council.

“We will intervene and sanction any attempt to distort the liberalization process in favor of the dominant company or some companies in the group as it affects the interests of consumers,” he added.

Inspections were carried out at the headquarters and some workplaces of the companies in Bucharest, Constanta and Timisoara, and the documents are being reviewed by the Romanian competition authority.

Unannounced inspections are authorized by the Bucharest Court of Appeal and are justified by the need to obtain all the information and documents necessary to clarify the possible anti-competitive practices being analyzed. Their compilation is not a preliminary conviction of the guilt of the companies.