Poland threatens Gazprom with 50 mln euro fine for lack of data

WARSAW, Jun 3 (PRIME) -- Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has launched a case against Russian gas giant Gazprom for non-provision of data during investigation regarding the Nord Stream-2 natural gas pipeline, and  may impose a 50 million euro fine, the authority said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The competition and consumer protection office head has launched a case against Gazprom for the lack of cooperation during an antimonopoly investigation,” the statement read.

“Gazprom may face a fine of up to 50 million euros for the failure to provide information regardless of the consequences that followed the investigation of a deal struck without approval of the UOKiK,” the authority said.

In 2018, the office charged Gazprom, Engie, Uniper, OMV, Shell, and Wintershall with financing of construction of the pipeline without a necessary approval. In early 2020, the authority asked Gazprom to provide relevant documents, but the company did not do it.

In 2019, the UOKiK issued a U.S. $43 million fine for Engie for the failure to provide information. The authority also said that all companies may face a fine of up to 10% of their annual turnover under the case.

The Nord Stream-2 project envisages construction of two lines of a natural gas pipeline with an annual capacity of up to 55 billion cubic meters, running from the Russian shore to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Russian gas giant Gazprom builds the pipeline together with Germany’s Uniper and Wintershall DEA, Royal Dutch Shell, Austria’s OMV, and France’s Engie.

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