The European Union's top antitrust enforcer on Thursday threatened to formally charge the Russian natural gas giant Gazprom with restricting trade and price gouging, raising the stakes in a two-year investigation that has already created tensions with Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin. The case focuses on whether Gazprom violated European Union antitrust laws by restricting European buyers' right to sell gas to one another, and by unfairly raising costs by linking gas prices to oil prices. The European Union's administrative branch, the European Commission, has previously won concessions from Gazprom in similar cases involving contracts in Western Europe. Paradoxically, Gazprom charges more to customers in Eastern European nations than those in Germany, Italy or France, though the Western Europeans are farther from the Siberian gas fields.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/04/business/international/europe-threatens-gazprom-with-antitrust-action.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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