Data leveraging in energy markets in the aftermath of EDF and ENEL: taking stock, looking ahead

This chapter discusses two major developments involving data leveraging by incumbent operators in the energy sector. One of them is the EDF case, settled with commitments by the French competition authority in 2022. The second is ENEL, originally decided by the Italian authority in 2018 and which gave rise to a preliminary reference, on which the ECJ ruled four years later. The two cases provide fresh insights into the way energy operators collect, process and use data. They also raise novel points of law, all while revisiting some fundamental issues pertaining to the interpretation of Article 102 TFEU (including the notion of competition on the merits and the assessment of anticompetitive effects in recently liberalized industries). The chapter puts these contributions in context and explores how they may shape future enforcement at the intersection of competition law and sector-specific regulation.