BRUSSELS--The European Union on Wednesday accused Russian energy
giant OAO Gazprom of raising barriers to competition in the gas
markets of central and Eastern Europe, in a move that risks
deepening a rift with Moscow.
The charges come a week after the EU issued formal antitrust
charges against another giant company, U.S. search giant Google
Inc., over its alleged abuse of dominance of online search in
Europe.
"All companies that operate in the European market--no matter if
they are European or not--have to play by our EU rules," the bloc's
antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
The Gazprom investigation, which began 2 1/2 years ago, had been
moving toward a settlement early last year, but stalled after
Russia's annexation of Crimea in March last year. EU officials had
worried that filing charges against the Russian company would be
interpreted by the Kremlin as a political act.
Write to Tom Fairless at tom.fairless@wsj.com and Gabriele
Steinhauser at gabriele.steinhauser@wsj.com
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