Mergers: Commission partially waives commitments made by Gaz de France to obtain clearance of its acquisition of Suez in 2006

The European Commission has partially waived, under the EU Merger Regulation, the commitments made by Gaz de France to obtain clearance of its acquisition of Suez (now together, Engie). The Commission approved the transaction, subject to conditions, in November 2006. In compliance with the commitments, Engie built additional gaz storage capacity in the EZ20 cavity at the Etrez site, in France. Under the commitments, Engie had to offer this capacity in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner through auctions, while ensuring that no company could reserve more than one third of it. These obligations relating to the sale of the capacity had no end date and Engie asked the Commission to waive them. The Commission carried out a market investigation to determine whether a waiver was justified in light of the changed market conditions. The Commission's investigation revealed that the structure of the relevant markets and the applicable legislation have changed to such an extent that operators now have access to sufficient capacity to compete in the downstream markets for the supply of gas. On this basis, the Commission has decided to approve Engie's waiver request. More information is available on the Commission's competition website, in the public case register under the case number M.4180.