The two electricity suppliers are sanctioned to have the right to buy cheap nuclear electricity from EDF.
Mint and BCM Energy electricity suppliers are respectively inflicted a penalty of 3.5 and 3 million euros for abusive practice on the occasion of the energy prices, the energy regulatory regulation commission (CRE) announced on Thursday.
The two companies are sanctioned for abusing the right to buy cheap nuclear electricity from EDF, by returning it to the markets at the highest from 2021 instead of making their customers benefit.
The CRE, the gendarme of the energy sector, had opened two investigations on their practices at the end of 2022 and early 2023.
At the end of her investigations, she seized her dispute and sanctions settlement committee (Cordis), which decided on July 3 to “inflict a financial penalty of 3.5 million euros to the company MINT and 3 million euros to the company BCM Energy for having committed, each, an abuse of the right of access to historic nuclear electricity (ARENH) in the 1920s and 2022 “.
“Arenh abuse”
Under the “Arenh” mechanism imposed by Brussels, EDF is forced to sell its competitors of cheap nuclear production.
Previously, in July 2024, the supplier Ohm Energie had already been imposed a record fine of 6 million euros for “Arenh abuse” in the same context.
The surveillance of alternative supplies, which benefit from a de facto subsidized electricity, had been particularly reinforced during the energy crisis, which had seen the wholesale prices of electricity in Europe reaching their summit under the effect of post-Cavid recovery and the war in Ukraine.
These surveys “demonstrate the essential role of Window exercised by CRE on the retail market, aimed at ensuring that all the actors respect the regulations,” said its president Emmanuelle Wargon on Thursday.
