France’s antitrust watchdog has ordered GDF Suez to give competitors access to part of its customer database and said the utility company might have abused its dominant position in the gas market, according to Dailymail.co.uk. GDF Suez denies the allegation.

Following a complaint by rival energy group Direct Energy, GDF Suez will have to open up its corporate customer database by Nov. 3 and to its household database by Dec. 15, France’s competition authority said on Tuesday.

The watchdog will also begin an in-depth investigation into GDF Suez’s market practices that will run until late 2015 or early 2016.
If this finds that GDF Suez has abused its dominant position, the watchdog could fine the company as much as 10 percent of its worldwide sales. GDF Suez’s 2013 sales were 81.3 billion euro.

GDF Suez said it was considering its options, including a possible appeal against the watchdog’s decision. “GDF Suez firmly denies having made any use of a dominant position,” the company said.

France’s energy market was liberalized in 2007, giving consumers the option of switching from the former monopoly operator GDF Suez to alternative suppliers. But the competition watchdog said that seven years after liberalization, the development of alternative gas suppliers was extremely limited.

At the end of 2013, alternative suppliers – not including EDF – had only 5 percent of the household market and 13 percent of the industrial market, despite offering market prices that are up to 15 percent below GDF Suez’s regulated tariffs, the competition authority said. This is hampering the competitiveness of French companies and the purchasing power of French households.

Direct Energy’s complaint, filed in April, said GDF Suez was using its database of customers on regulated gas tariffs to offer them both gas and electricity at market prices, allowing it to maintain its position in the gas market and win new customers. GDF Suez offers government-regulated gas tariffs, but also offers market prices like its newer competitors.

The watchdog said Direct Energy had accused GDF Suez of confusing regulated and competitive tariffs. The competition body said GDF Suez was suspected of having “abused its dominant position on the gas market by using infrastructure dedicated to the regulated market to commercialize competitive offers.”