German authorities are probing EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG over whether the utility abused its position in the power market in 2021 to hike electricity prices.
(Bloomberg) — German authorities are probing EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG over whether the utility abused its position in the power market in 2021 to hike electricity prices.
Police, the Federal Cartel Office and the Mannheim prosecutor’s office raided EnBW’s offices on Jan. 25, the cartel office and the utility confirmed on Monday. Investigators wanted to determine whether EnBW had at times abused its dominant market position to sell power at improperly high prices, the cartel office said in a statement.
EnBW is “confident that the allegations made will not be confirmed,” a spokeswoman said in a statement. The probe was based on observations of high short-term price fluctuations for energy for grid stabilization, she said. The cases being probed were in 2021, prior to the recent energy crisis, EnBW said.
The utility, one of Germany’s largest energy providers, was a focus of consumer ire last year after it increased prices several times to pass on higher wholesale energy costs. This year, EnBW predicted that its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization would climb more than 40%.
The investigation was previously reported by Stuttgarter Zeitung.
–With assistance from Josefine Fokuhl and Karin Matussek.
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