Bundeskartellamt publishes national gas price comparison
for household consumers

In cooperation with the competition authorities of the Länder the Bundeskartellamt has published for the first time a list of gas prices for household consumers charged by 739 gas suppliers throughout Germany. The gas price comparison with tariffs for the gas year 2006/2007 is available at www.bundeskartellamt.de on the Bundeskartellamt’s website.

The President of the Bundeskartellamt, Ulf Böge stated: “Competition in the gas sector is slow in getting started in spite of liberalisation. Given the current high prices, an examination of gas tariffs by the competition authorities, in particular to find out whether gas suppliers are abusing their dominant position in their supply area in setting their prices, is of significant importance both for industry and consumers. By publishing the gas prices for household consumers we hope to create more transparency and encourage competition.”

The federal and Land competition authorities already decided to jointly act against abusive pricing in 2005. As a result they were able to successfully carry out a number of abusive pricing proceedings in the gas sector last year by means of a coordinated database. In view of significant price differences at national level the control of abusive pricing by the competition authorities will be even more effective in future because they are now able to conduct a national comparison of the gas suppliers across Länder borders, allowing prices to be measured with those of particularly efficient and structurally comparable gas suppliers.

On 7/8 June 2006 the economic ministers of the Federal Government and the Länder decided at their conference in Erfurt to publish gas prices in future. The gas price survey now available was carried out uniformly by all the competition authorities on 15.11.2006. The Bundeskartellamt’s national survey is based on the following purchase quantities: apartments with gas boiler (7,000kWh p.a), single family houses (20,000kW p.a), detached single family houses (35,000kW p.a) and 6-unit apartment blocks (90,000kW p.a). The missing information about approx. 20 companies (highlighted in yellow) will be published as soon as the data is available from the Länder. The section under the rubric “Hinweise zum bundesweiten Gaspreisvergleich” contains important information about the tariffs. This is followed by a separate list containing exclusively companies for which the Bundeskartellamt is the competent authority.

The Land competition authorities have announced that they will publish the gas prices of the companies in their area of responsibility on the website of the economics ministry of the respective Land.