European Commission Official Comments on Alleged Antitrust Violations by Gazprom

On October 3, 2013, Joaquin Almunia, the Vice President of the European Commission Responsible for Competition Policy, stated that the European Union Executive has begun preparing a statement of objections against Gazprom for antitrust violations.  Almunia noted that the European Competition Network has investigated Gazprom's business practices for over a year before preparing the statement of objections, which is a formal step in the antitrust complaint process.  The Commission suspects Gazprom manipulated the supply of upstream gas in both Central and Eastern Europe by hindering free flow of gas, imposing unfair prices on customers, and impeding countries' efforts to diversify their energy supplies.  Almunia did not comment on when the Commission would take further actions against Gazprom.

  

Almunia's Speech from October 3, 2013 is available here: Almunia Speech Transcript

Written by: Tom Panighetti
October 9, 2013

Cherry Canyon files class action suit against hydraulic fracturing equipment suppliers

On July 31, 2013, amidst the DOJ anti-trust investigation of pressure pumping and oil field equipment suppliers, Halliburton, Schlumberger and Baker Hughes, Cherry Canyon Resources, a pressure pumping equipment purchaser, initiated a class action lawsuit against the suppliers under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Cherry Canyon filed its complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Among the allegations, Cherry Canyon claims that the Defendant suppliers “shared a conscious commitment to a common scheme designed to achieve the unlawful objective of artificially fixing, raising, pegging, maintaining, and stabilizing the price and output of Fracking Pressure Pumping Services” in the United States from May 2011 to the present. According to the complaint and news sources, the Defendants, collectively, control over 60% of the market for pressure pumping services in North America.

For more information on the suit, the complaint can be retrieved from pacer.gov, searching under the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, 2:13-cv-00238.

Written by: Garrett Lent, Research Assistant

Agricultural Law Resource and Reference Center

August 2013

DOJ Anti-trust Division initiates probe of hydraulic fracturing companies

The Department of Justice initiated anti-trust investigations of Haliburton and Baker Hughes because of possible anti-competitive practices. DOJ spokeswoman, Gina Talamona, confirmed the investigation in a statement on July 25, 2013. Both Baker Hughes and Haliburton are cooperating with the investigation, but not specifying what information is being requested by the DOJ. According to an article by Reuters Baker Hughes was asked to turn over documents and records for the two years prior to May 30, including records from 2011.

Recently, according to news sources, an increasing number of hydraulic fracturing equipment suppliers caused prices in the equipment market to decline substantially. In 2011, however, pumping capacity in North America increased by fifty percent, and Haliburton, Baker Hughes and Schlumberger controlled a large portion of the market.

For more information on the investigation, follow the coverage by Reuters, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal online.

Written by: Garrett Lent, Research Assistant

Agricultural Law Resource and Reference Center

July 2013