The European commission has announced that it has sent a statement of objections to Russian energy giant Gazprom as part of ongoing antitrust investigations.
In a press release, the commission said that its "preliminary view is that Gazprom is breaking EU antitrust rules by pursuing an overall strategy to partition central and eastern European gas markets, for example by reducing its customers' ability to resell the gas cross-border. This may have enabled Gazprom to charge unfair prices in certain member states".
In addition, the company is alleged to have charged unfair prices in EU countries and abusing "its dominant market position by making supply of gas dependent on obtaining unrelated commitments from wholesalers concerning gas transport infrastructure".
European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager stressed that "all companies that operate in the European market - no matter if they are European or not - have to play by our EU rules".
Reacting to the college's announcement, Gazprom said the objections were "unfounded" and insisted that its "business practices in the EU market, including the principles of gas pricing, are in full conformity with the standards observed by other producers and exporters of natural gas".
Yet the Russian firm defiantly added, "we expect that it will be duly noted that Gazprom was established beyond the jurisdiction of the EU, and that it is empowered by the laws of the Russian federation with special socially significant functions and has the status of a strategic government-controlled business entity".
This latest development comes amid energy union plans to move away from Russian oil dependency and is unlikely to ease ongoing tensions between Brussels and Moscow.
EPP group chair Manfred Weber welcomed the news, saying, "whether SME or Gazprom, everyone is equal - the commission is right to enforce common market rules".
Meanwhile, Greens/EFA MEP Michel Reimon, who serves as the group's spokesperson on competition policy, accused the Russian government of using "the state-owned energy giant Gazprom to shape policy and play EU countries off each other".
He urged Europe not to "allow this politically motivated interference in its gas market".