2023-08-23 17:05:15
The Prosecutor’s Office of the National Court has opened proceedings to investigate whether Naturgy manipulated the electricity market after a complaint by Facua and a sanction by the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) against the energy company. In a statement, the agency ensures that the objective is to determine the scope of this complaint and determine if there is a crime against the rights of consumers for “fraudulent machination to alter the price of things, which produce or may cause patrimonial damage to a generality of people in the territory.
In the letter sent by the Facua consumer association, it was indicated that the CNMC’s sanction to Naturgy for a value of 6 million euros -in addition to demanding the return of 35.5 million more as compensation- for manipulating the electricity market It could mean that the company “had committed a crime against the market and customers.”
For this reason, the Prosecutor’s Office announced this Wednesday that it has asked the CNMC not only to know if it affected the price paid by users, but also if this possible price increase could have been projected over all or over a limited part of the national territory. In addition, it wants the agency to provide an approximate quantification of the patrimonial damages caused to consumers and users caused by a possible increase in final prices, as well as to report on whether the sanctioning resolution is final or if it has been challenged in court, and In that case, you want to know in which judicial body and process it is carried out.
Facua complaint
On August 1, Facua filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office in which it reported on the CNMC’s sanction against Naturgy for manipulation of the electricity market. Facua estimated that from the facts proven by the CNMC “possible criminal conduct could be inferred” by Naturgy Generación in relation to article 284 of the Penal Code.
In addition, he pointed out that it is not reasonable for the company to justify this price increase in order to recover past losses, “using the circumstances of the Galician area and the absence of competitors to increase its income.”
A week earlier, the CNMC announced that it was imposing a penalty of 6 million euros on Naturgy for offering adjustment services for electricity generation, specifically in the technical restrictions market, at excessive and disparate prices, with respect to its offers in the daily electricity market, without justification, in order to increase their income.
indemnities
In addition, in order to compensate for the cost overruns, the company was required to make a compensatory contribution of 35.5 million to the settlements of the system operator, to compensate for the damage caused by reducing the costs of acquiring energy by part of the claim. This amount will be distributed among the claim in a number of months equal to those that the action lasted, that is, a total of 22 months.
The company, which has appealed the sanction, argued that the plant had “consistently formulated (and not only in the period analysed) its offers under restrictions, seeking to reasonably recover -if not achieving- its total costs based on the best and imperfect estimate of the competitive conditions at all times.
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