The measure to cap electricity prices has wiped out competition in the market, and it may come to the attention of the Competition Council to consider the effects of the decision, Zoltan Nagy-Bege, vice president of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE), said on Tuesday.

“Law 259 (for the approval of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 118/2021) also provided for the capping of prices for certain categories of consumers, both for electricity and natural gas and other support measures, which come to help consumers exposed to this crisis, these price increases. It must be said, unfortunately, that this capping measure has wiped out competition in the electricity and gas market, the retail market, at least. This is a serious matter, which, even if applied for only five months, is likely to influence the energy and natural gas markets for a much longer period of time and may also come to the attention of the Competition Council to analyze these market effects of these measures,” said Nagy-Bege, according to Agerpres.
He expressed his belief that these effects will be reflected in the monitoring that the competition authority has launched on the natural gas market, immediately after the elimination of regulated prices.

“I am convinced that in the monitoring that the Competition Council has been doing since last year on the natural gas market, started immediately after the elimination of regulated prices, when you will collect data and we will provide you with relevant data regarding gas market developments, these effects will be seen. I think it would be beneficial to have a discussion with ANRE experts on this subject,” Nagy-Bege said.