Romanian market regulator slaps fines on gas suppliers that hiked prices illegally

Several natural gas supply companies were fined on Thursday by the market regulator (ANRE) for breaching the contracts and hiking the price charged before the end of the expiry of the contract.

Engie, E.ON and Restart Energy have to pay RON 800,000 (EUR 160,000) while Premier Energy should pay RON 200,000 (EUR 40,000), Digi24 reported.

In addition, ANRE compelled the four suppliers to observe the contracts and deliver to customers natural gas at the fixed price for the entire period of the contract.

Subsidiaries of the Enel group were also fined because they published non-transparent offers, unclear, for instance, in regard to their tenant.

Engie, E.ON and Restart Energy will challenge the fine, arguing that they had done nothing wrong because gas purchase prices had recently exploded internationally. Restart Energy invoked past rulings of the European Court of Justice that allegedly allowed energy suppliers to breach contracts and hike prices under special circumstances - such as those seen currently on the natural gas market.

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