Client Alert
| June 15, 2009
European Commission Fines Electrabel €20 Million for Failure to Notify Under the ECMR
On 10 June 2009, the European Commission ("Commission") announced that it had imposed a fine of €20 million on Electrabel, an electricity producer and retailer belonging to the Suez Group, for implementing its acquisition of Compagnie Nationale du Rhône ("CNR") without having received prior approval under the European Community Merger Regulation (Regulation (EC) 139/2004, "ECMR"). Although Electrabel had acquired a stake of less than 50 percent in CNR, the Commission determined that Electrabel acquired de facto sole control of CNR, and thus ought to have notified the transaction under the ECMR. Commissioner Neelie Kroes has described the actions of Electrabel as "a serious breach" of the ECMR, noting that "the decision sends a clear signal that the Commission will not tolerate breaches of this fundamental rule of the EU merger control system."
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