The French Competition Authority has ordered GDF SUEZ to grant its competitors access to parts of its database relating to consumers with regulated gas tariffs to prevent a risk of pre-emption of the market by GDF SUEZ. The data that have to be disclosed are those that are strictly necessary to ensure effective competition among suppliers, i.e. the customer name and address and the technical characteristics of his consumption. This access must occur at the latest by 3 November 2014 for customers with company status, and by 15 December 2014 for individual customers. This access will enable competitors of GDF SUEZ to compete with the incumbent operator on an equal footing by enabling them to let customers better know about the competitive offers they are currently marketing. This will enable consumers to reduce their gas bills, especially as winter approaches.
GDF Suez is currently studying all available options, including that of appealing the decision.
Since the complete opening up of the gas market to competition in July 2007, the development of alternative new gas suppliers has been extremely limited as on 31 December 2013, their market share varies between 5% for individuals and 13% for industrial and commercial customers.
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