Record EUR 200mn fine for four Romanian electricity suppliers

Romania’s energy market regulator ANRE identified four energy suppliers/traders that colluded to manipulate the market and decided fines between 3% and 7.5% of their turnover. The total fines sum up to the record level of some EUR 200mn, according to sources familiar with the matter consulted by Hotnews.

ANRE's investigation was triggered by notifications from the energy market operator OPCOM SA and the European Union’s Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulatory Authorities (ACER).

The decision comes at a moment when the European Commission is analysing the legality of Romania’s energy price capping scheme.

The authorities in Brussels are now trying to understand why the government in Bucharest wants to maintain the scheme until 2025, but also the design of the scheme and its compliance with the European regulations on such temporary measures.

In principle, it is possible that the market manipulation subject to ANRE’s decision was facilitated by the price-capping scheme. Romania already paid energy suppliers RON 23bn (EUR 4.6bn) from the state budget, under the scheme.

Three of the four suppliers would be Tinmar, Nova Power & Gas, and EFT Furnizare.

The nature of the market manipulation is not publicly known, but the design of the price capping mechanism indicates that such anti-competitive policies would have resulted in damages to the public budget (as opposed to end-consumers).

Indeed, the media reported about record profits reported by the energy suppliers/traders, particularly the three fined by ANRE, in 2022.

Tinmar Energy, controlled by local entrepreneur Augustin Oancea, is one of the largest suppliers in Romania. Its turnover surged by 157% y/y to RON 9.2bn (EUR 1.9bn) in 2022.

Nova Power & Gas is owned by E-Infra, controlled by brothers Simion Mureșan (30%) and Teofil Mureșan (40%) and businessman Marian Pantazescu (30%). The company is a partner of Nuclearelectrica in the Doicești mini-reactors project. In 2022, its turnover surged by 218% RON1.8bn (EUR 360mn). The company released a comment, claiming that it has followed the market regulations and is surprised by ANRE’s decision.

EFT Furnizare (Romania) is the subsidiary of EFT Investments Limited UK (80%) with several other shareholders (Vojkan Tomasevic - 15%, Amalia Gabriela Badea - 2.5%, Marin Alexandru-Costin - 2.5%).