BERLIN: The European Union plans to file formal antitrust charges against the bloc’s largest gas supplier, Russia’s OAO Gazprom, said people familiar with the matter, a move set to escalate the standoff between Europe and Moscow.
The charges jump-start a case against the state-controlled energy company, which the EU has long suspected of abusing its dominant position in some eastern and southern European countries’ markets. Over the past year, the EU avoided formally charging Gazprom in the 2½-year-old probe as diplomatic talks with Moscow to resolve the Ukraine crisis were under way. But those talks have dragged on.
The move comes after the EU imposed economic sanctions against Russia last year over the country’s role in the Ukraine conflict, and risks complicating international efforts to reach a peace accord.
Gazprom, meanwhile, faces the prospect of a multibillion-dollar fine at a time when Russia is already struggling with falling energy prices and EU moves to lure alternative gas suppliers.
With the new charges, the bloc’s competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, mounts another antitrust case against a major company in a big country just one week after the European Commission filed formal charges against U.S.-based Google Inc.
Google has denied any anticompetitive behavior. When she took office in November, the antitrust chief pledged not to be swayed by political considerations.
