Today the Bundeskartellamt has initiated proceedings to examine the award of concessions for gas networks in Berlin following a complaint filed by GASAG Berliner Gaswerke AG and NBB Netzgesellschaft Berlin-Brandenburg.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: "We have asked the competent authority of the State of Berlin, the Berlin Senate Department for Finance, to provide us with the relevant documents e.g. the offers submitted by bidders and details on how the department evaluates bids. We will now examine whether the evaluation of bids and the selection decision made in the award of concessions for the Berlin gas network violate the prohibition of abusive practices under competition law."

Already in 2012, upon a request by the competent senate department, the Bundeskartellamt had been consulted on the selection procedure for assigning rights of way for the operation of gas networks. Agreement could be reached on a number of details of the award procedure. However, the Bundeskartellamt also drew attention to critical issues, most recently in December 2013 concerning the very wide scope of the 'change of control' clause.

The Bundeskartellamt was not involved in the evaluation of the bids for concessions and the current award decision which were carried out solely by the competent Berlin senate department.