The Financial Times has obtained an early copy of the famed Nellie Kroes report on European Utilities competition. By all accounts it will make uncomfortable reading for the big players who are already under investigation for anti-trust behaviour.

In reality the likes of RWE and Eon will not be too worried as the bark of Ms Kroes is far worse than her bite which is pretty toothless. But what she does do is start the snowball of accusation and this will make UK regulators and European counterparts look more carefully at their industries. In particular, the report is likely to suggest that the monopolistic behaviour is stifling competition and that some form of break up is required. This could lead to governments limiting the size of businesses in this country forcing competition. This is massively at odds with the supply business model which looks to implement economies of scale in order to work with a 5m customers being the minimum requirments.

As always the move may be more subtle encouraging players to specialise and therefore breaking up the vertical integration which ensued after NETA. If this were to happen then the traded market would improve as players would have to trade more effectively (though long term deals would exist and price risk would be managed more carefully in the traded market. )

It is likely that we will see more competition turmoil in Europe and the UK in the next couple of years and it will be interesting to see the outcomes and the effects it will have on the market.