The EU Commision as predicted is going to bring 107 charges on utilities companies in the EU. Of the 107 charges it is expected that 50 of them will go to court. Spain and France have been cited as the main breachers of competition law, but many have had their fingers wrapped.

It is likely that more details on the offences will come out in due course. The perverse thing is that this has had no effect on prices, which have robustly stayed high, one suspects that this is partly as a result of high oil prices. But the market should at the very least out of courtesy do something about the situation and react in someway.

It is hoped that these sorts of court cases will push the large utilities to a point where they are able to move players into actually doing something, liberalising realising that their monopolies will not be allowed, and that keeping the juicy competitive bits would be more worthwhile. It is sadly someway away.