Having considered the fact that the price per therm of gas for January 2007 (80 NBP) is something like twice the global LNG price for the same date (37p) and almost twice that of the European Oil link gas (43p) it strikes me that the UK gas market has anti-competitive elements within it
I am considering asking the Director of Fair Trading to commence a Chapter II investigation into anti-competitive behaviour in the UK gas market in particular.
Chapter ii (1998 Act) relates as follows:
Abuse of a dominant position
The Chapter II prohibition and Article 82 of the EC Treaty prohibit the abuse by one or more businesses of a dominant position in a market.
Chapter II and Article 82 give examples of specific types of conduct that are particularly likely to be considered as an abuse where the business is in a of a dominant position. These include:
imposing unfair purchase or selling prices;
limiting production, markets or technical development to the prejudice of consumers;
applying different trading conditions to equivalent transactions, thereby placing certain parties at a competitive disadvantage; and
attaching unrelated supplementary conditions to contracts.
The mechanisms used which imply limiting production .. to the prejudice of consumers both on a pipeline import basis, but also on the use of IoG seem to me to infer a Chapter II contravention is occuring. There is a more complex question as to who is responsible for this contravention, but it seems prima facie that
a) Production (import) is limited and
b) That is to the prejudice of consumers.
I am approaching a number of market participants prior to making such a reference to find out their views beforehand.
The link is in Russian about the imprisonment of Norman Scarth who is actually 85. He has a complex history including a court hearing which found that he used a chainsaw to fight off bailiffs when he was 75. [a court judgment which is disputed see comments] However, that does not justify imprisoning him for 6 months for recording a court hearing (see the link and ask google to translate it if your Russian is not up to it).
It has got into the Argyll News
Because he has been held such that people cannot get to him to sign paperwork an application for a writ of Habeas Corpus was made today. This has been adjourned until next week.
The English judicial system is really not good at responding to major abuses of human rights by the judicial system.
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