Regulating and Supervising of Wholesale Energy Markets. What's in it for the Consumers?

Abstract

This paper draws on the case law of the European Court of Justice to examine the current (im)possibilities of dealing with the supervision and regulation of the competition in the wholesale energy markets within the three different European regulatory frameworks, namely the Third Energy Package, REMIT and EU competition law. It contains a critical analysis of the potential of this complex interplay of rules- in itself a burden for the national energy authorities- to contribute to the key objective of the Third Energy Package’s directives and regulations: the protection of energy consumers when concluding energy supply contracts.