Press Release: Mergers: Commission decides that Spanish measures in proposed E.ON/Endesa takeover violate EC law

The European Commission has decided that Spain has violated Article 21 of the EU Merger Regulation, which gives the Commission exclusive competence over mergers of a European dimension, in that certain conditions imposed on E.ON for its proposed acquisition of control over Endesa are incompatible with EC law and are therefore illegal. The Commission decision refers in particular to new conditions imposed in a decision of 3 November 2006, adopted in the framework of an administrative appeal against a previous decision of the Spanish Energy Regulator, CNE, on the proposed transaction. The Commission decision requires Spain to withdraw the illegal conditions by 19 January 2007.