Court of Justice upholds Commission approval of Iberian electricity price support mechanism
The Court of Justice, in Case C‑348/25 P, PGI Spain and Others v Commission, ruled on the Commission’s approval of the Spanish and Portuguese mechanism introduced to reduce wholesale electricity prices in the Iberian market. The mechanism provided support to fossil-fuel power plants to lower generation costs and was financed through a contribution imposed on certain electricity buyers.
The appellants argued that certain retail electricity buyers with financial power purchase agreements were treated less favourably than wholesale buyers benefiting from an exemption from that contribution and that the Commission should therefore have opened a formal investigation.
The Court dismissed the appeal, finding that the appellants had failed to establish that the Commission when adopting its decision, was or ought to have been aware of the specific situation of those retail electricity buyers concerned. It also confirmed that later developments could not be relied on to challenge the legality of the original approval decision and that it is not for the Commission, on its own initiative and in the absence of any evidence to that effect, to seek all information which might be connected with the case before it, even where such information is in the public domain.
The Court therefore upheld the General Court’s judgment and the Commission’s decision approving the Iberian electricity price mechanism.
For more information, see the CJEU’s Judgment.