La competencia en el sector del gas natural: el mercado regulado de a distribución del gas natural a la luz de la política energética de la Unión Europea

Abstract

The European Union, in its search to guaranteeing the development of an energy sector that allows the sustainable, competitive and safe acquisition of energy, has structured its energy policy around the need to establish and maintain an internal energy market. However, in relation to the gas sector, its effective liberalization is, as far as the Spanish State is concerned, far from its definitive attainment: certain markets remain, even today, oblivious to the game of free competition. This is the case of the regulated market for the distribution of gas. This means that certain economic operators in that market have taken advantage of their monopolistic position to develop anti-competitive practices that affect related non-regulated markets ¿liberalized, that is, open to free competition¿, ultimately preventing the establishment of an EU-wide competitive internal energy market.

Keywords

• natural monopoly
• energy policy of the european union
• internal energy market
• internalgas market
• competition law