Gaz de France under EU probe into "Smith field" competition

Gaz de France under EU probe into "Smith field" competition

Gaz de France (GDF), a French company that produces, transports and sells natural gas, is under EU investigation over restricted access to its pipelines.

The European Antitrust Commission suspects French energy company of providing deliberately limited capacity on its network and failing to invest in pipelines thus harming competition (the company alleges that as many as 44 competitors have access to its infrastructure).

The company agreed to participate in the probe, saying that it didn’t shut out competitors by restricting pipelines access.

Once the breach found, the gas producer will have to to separate their distribution networks or sell its transmission networks.

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