On 22nd April the European Commission published a communication of objections against Gazprom for abuse of dominant position on the gas supply markets in central and eastern Europe. Some practices undertaken by the Russian company are said to be contrary to European competition rules: price deals, territorial restrictions in its supply agreements with wholesalers, abusive limitation of cross-border gas flows, gas deliveries subject to investments in a gas pipeline promoted by Gazprom. Eight Member States are said to be affected by this: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lituania, Poland and Slovakia. This communication comes prior to a final decision to be taken by the Commission and Gazprom now has 12 weeks to prepare its defence...
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