The Liberalisation Of European Energy Markets: The Use Of Competition Law As A Regulatory Tool

The chapter first assessed the problem by taking into account two different angles:…

Under the case law section, the chapter first evaluated the VEMW judgment of the Court of Justice, since this judgment had an enormous impact on the approach that the Commission adopted to assessing the legitimacy of preferential access rights. In this case, an existing priority access right could not be justified by an association with long-term supply contracts signed before the first regulatory Directive entered into force. It was deemed discriminatory unless the Member State concerned had consulted for derogation from third party access under Article 24 of Directive 96/92/EC. This new trend was also adopted by the Commission through a staff working paper on the effects of the VEMW judgement,…