Антимонопольное правовое регулирование газовой промышленности в Европейском Союзе

Вестник Российского университета дружбы народов. Серия: Юридические науки. 2016. № 2. С. 81–105.

Volkov A. K.

In the article, the author focuses primarily on the general rules of EU antimonopoly regulation, inter

alia: the dominant position, the anti-competitive agreements and the State assistance. The author also

specifies of special features of the regulation, as well as its practical regulation. In the second part of the

article, the researcher analyses the specific antitrust norms, applicable to gas industry in the sectors of

gas transport, distribution, storage and commerce.

The author points that today the antitrust law became the basic instrument of the gas industry development.

The application of the common rules became habitual and gets the gradual character. At the

same time, the doubts on the necessity of the antitrust law existence still exist. The application of the

specific antitrust norms give rise to more doubts.

Possibly because of the lack of the practice of the realization of the EU legislation, may be it is

too early to make the conclusions about the effectiveness of the antitrust legal regulation. Already, there

are propositions of the elaboration of the new directives. However, while implementing future reforms

concurrence should not be achieved through the establishment of the new barriers on the market. The

measures like unbundling, the regulatory access to the infrastructure themselves present the restrictions

of the freedom of the entrepreneurship.

Consequently, more actual is not the adoption of the new directives but the deregulation. The

diminution of the States interference will allow to retain the incitements for the monopolist and to

eliminate the barriers of the entrance on the market.

The author comes to the conclusion that if the adoption of the new acts is inevitable for the legislator,

the institutions should, first of all, proportion the goals and measures of their achievement and,

secondly, secure the balance between the importance of the concurrence developpement and the energy

efficiency, keeping in mind the deficit of this resource.

Keywords: antitrust law, oil and gas industry, право ЕС, газовая промышленность, энергетическое право, essential facilities doctrine, energy law, антимонопольное право, Law of the EU, право доступа к инфраструктуре

Publication based on the results of: The value of public and private law instruments in the regulation of economic activity (2016)