The EU Court of Justice AG Rantos delivers his opinion in a request for a preliminary ruling on the conduct of an energy and gas producer in the context of the liberalisation of the electricity market in Italy (Enel)

On 9 December 2021, Advocate General (“AG”) Rantos delivered his Opinion in Servizio Elettrico Nazionale (Case C‑377/20), a request for a preliminary ruling from the Italian Consiglio di Stato. The case concerns the conduct of the ENEL Group (“ENEL”) in the context of the liberalisation of the electricity market in Italy. ENEL, the incumbent, allegedly used customer data obtained before liberalisation to make offers to customers in order to “transfer” them to its operator active on the liberalised market, seeking to prevent the large-scale departure of customers. The conduct at issue. ENEL separately sought its customers’ consent to having ENEL’s operator in the liberalised market make them offers and to having third parties making offers. The Italian competition authority found that, as