Demarcation treaty
In Germany, demarcation contracts are contracts concluded between energy supply companies (EVU). Such contracts allocated energy supply companies to a specific area in which they could supply energy to the exclusion of other supply companies.
species
A distinction can be made between horizontal demarcation agreements between energy providers at the same level (e.g. between energy suppliers) and vertical demarcation agreements (e.g. between energy suppliers and an energy consumer). Before and after liberalization, demarcation agreements could violate antitrust law, as these agreements can impair free competition between electricity providers.
development
The starting point for the demarcation treaties was the Energy Industry Act, enacted in 1935 under National Socialist rule . The law's declared aim was to eliminate the supposedly harmful effects of competition on the energy market. The purpose of the law was pursued by concluding demarcation agreements. The regulations in the Energy Industry Act were supplemented by a regulation in Section 103 GWB . Thereafter, competition between energy providers was prohibited, but demarcation agreements could only be concluded for a maximum term of 20 years.
Until the liberalization of the electricity market, demarcation agreements were permitted under Section 103 GWB , but were subject to cartel supervision. The exception to the otherwise generally applicable ban on cartels has been used extensively. In the 1970s there were already around 40,000 such agreements, which had already covered the territory of what was then the Federal Republic of Germany with a network of monopoly areas . In view of this, the Federal Cartel Office had already spoken out in favor of a ban on demarcation agreements in 1963 . In view of the foreseeable liberalization due to European law and increasing efforts in politics to ban demarcation contracts, the electricity companies reacted in the 1990s by increasing their participation in municipal energy providers.
As a result of widespread practice, there was a relatively strong centralized energy market in Germany. In 1998, this was finally divided into a network, a regional and a local level. Only eight companies were active at the network level, producing around 80% of the electricity and maintaining the network. These companies passed the electricity on to the companies at the regional and local level, but in turn also had significant stakes in the approximately 70 companies at the regional level. The end user had electricity supply contracts with local or regional providers.
According to EC regulation 17/62, the Bundeskartellamt was also commissioned to apply European competition law in Germany, which did not provide for an exemption from energy-related demarcation agreements, as was the case in Section 103 GWB at the time. The Bundeskartellamt then began to apply Article 85 (1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community (EGV) directly for the first time with a decision of September 3, 1993 . The declared aim was to break the monopoly positions of the energy providers through the demarcation agreements.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mirka Senke: Electricity supply contracts after the liberalization of the electricity markets in the light of European and German antitrust law . (PDF; 5.3 MB) Diss. At Humboldt University Berlin 2003, Tenea-Verlag, Berlin, ISBN 3-936582-71-8 , p. 54.
- ↑ BGH, Az.KVR 29/96 of September 28, 1999
- ↑ Ortrud Aumüller: Regulation and competition on the telecommunications and electricity market . ( Memento of the original from September 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.6 MB) Diss. At the University of Hamburg 2006, Tenea-Verlag, Berlin, ISBN 3-86504-158-2 , p. 65 ff.
- ↑ Joachim Nawrocki: What the bosses atone for . In: Die Zeit , No. 44/1973
- ↑ Christoph Garding: Strategic purchases - large corporations are gearing up for more competition: They buy directly from their buyers. Focus issue 8/1994
- ↑ Ortrud Aumüller: Regulation and competition on the telecommunications and electricity market . ( Memento of the original from September 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.6 MB) Diss. At the University of Hamburg 2006, Tenea-Verlag, Berlin, ISBN 3-86504-158-2 , p. 66.
- ↑ Hermann-Josef Bunte : Legal application competitions in the application of EC cartel law by the national cartel authorities ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , DB 1994, 921.
