CEZ Group under investigation by European Commission regulators for possible breaches in EU’s competition laws.
TIRANA, Dec. 1 – CEZ Group, the Czech owner of Albania’s electricity distribution company, OSSH, has come under investigation by European Commission regulators for possible breaches in EU competition laws.
EU officials carried out a raid at CEZ headquarters in Prague this week to see whether CEZ muscled out competition in Central and Eastern European markets.
CEZ, which is 70 percent owned by the Czech government, says the company was cooperating fully with the probe, and a spokesman told the Reuters news agency that the raid was related to coal mining, and not the electricity market, for which the company is mostly known in Albania and the rest of the markets where it operates.
The EU and candidate countries are supposed to have free competition, but in practice countries in Eastern Europe and the Balkans place many restrictions. And places like Albania suffer as a result of these practices.
Just a few weeks ago, the Electricity Regulatory Entity canceled two contracts that CEZ-owned OSSH had signed for the importing electricity in 201,0 because they were not done under a competitive biding process.
CEZ also owns many production and distribution assets in the Balkans and has previously been directly exporting to Albania and Kosovo.
