On 30 November 2021 the Paris Commercial Court issued two more judgements on the merits in the cases brought by TotalEnergies and Ekwateur, ordering EDF to pay damages of €53.93 million to TotalEnergies and €1.77 million to Ekwateur. EDF has appealed against these two judgments, and the proceedings are still ongoing.
On 6 December 2022, the Paris Commercial Court issued two further judgements on the merits in the cases brought by Priméo Energie Grands Comptes and Priméo Energie Solutions, ordering EDF to pay these two companies damages of €1.73 million and €2.36 million respectively. EDF has appealed against these two judgments, and the proceedings are still ongoing.
The other cases on the merits are still ongoing.
At 31 December 2021 France’s Competition Authority (the ADLC) was investigating the EDF group in relation to four separate matters (the Engie complaint, the referral concerning heat networks, the Plüm complaint, the Xélan complaint), which are described in the notes to the consolidated financial statements at 31 December 2021.
There were significant developments in the first half of 2022 in the investigation that followed a complaint filed by Engie on 19 June 2017 relating to EDF’s commercial practices regarding retail electricity and gas sales, and specifically the circumstances in which EDF gave electricity suppliers, upon request, access to its file of customers paying the regulated “Green” and “Yellow” tariffs from the end of 2015, when these tariffs were about to be discontinued. Documents collected during search and seizure operations in November 2016 were used in the Engie proceedings. On 27 May 2021 EDF, Dalkia, Dalkia Smart Building, Citelum and Cham were notified of the ADLC’s objections concerning the markets for retail electricity and gas supply, multi-technique management/maintenance and energy optimisation services, and energy control measures leading to issuance of energy savings certificates.
On 22 February 2022, the ADLC fined the EDF group €300 million for dominant position abuse practices that allegedly enabled it to maintain its market shares in the electricity supply sector and strengthen its position in the associated gas supply and energy services markets. EDF benefited from the settlement procedure in this case and made two commitments: firstly, to make its file of customers on the “blue” regulated tariff available to alternative electricity suppliers upon request, and secondly, to separate the telephone subscription process for existing and prospective “blue” tariff customers from the process for existing and prospective customers on market-price contracts. A related provision was recognised at 31 December 2021. It was reversed when the expense, which was disbursed in July 2022, was recognised (see note 29.1).
In the investigation following an ex-officio referral to the ADLC on 4 November 2019 concerning the formation of a partnership for heat network operations, EDF, Dalkia, Électricité de Strasbourg, ES Services Energétiques and EDEV received initial notification of the ADLC’s objections on 3 May 2021, and an additional notification of objections on 8 July 2022. These notifications were the first step in a procedure that allows both sides to present their arguments. On 15 February 2023 the Rapporteur of the ADLC sent EDF her report in response to the observations made by the parties. The parties now have two months to make their observations on this report. The procedure will continue in 2023 and there is no indication as yet of the final outcome.
There were no significant developments in the other two ADLC investigations.
Finally, in a decision of 18 January 2022 the ADLC dismissed a complaint and application for interim measures made against EDF by ANODE (the national association of retail energy operators). This complaint concerned EDF’s refusal to provide access to the database of non-residential customers concerned by discontinuation of the “blue” regulated sales tariffs, who were switched automatically to a follow-on market-price contract at 31 December 2020. However, the ADLC considered that ANODE’s arguments were not backed up by sufficient evidence proving the existence of the alleged practices. ANODE filed an appeal against this decision on 1 March 2022 before the Paris Court of Appeal and in parallel, EDF made a declaration of voluntary intervention on 30 March 2022. The Court of Appeal ruled on 3 November 2022 that EDF’s declaration of voluntary intervention was inadmissible, considering that the ADLC should not have informed EDF of its decision to dismiss ANODE’s complaint. On 30 November 2022 EDF filed an appeal against this inadmissibility ruling. The appeal proceedings concerning the merits of the ADLC’s decision of 18 January 2022 are still ongoing.
EDF is a party in a number of labour lawsuits. EDF considers that none of these lawsuits, individually, is likely to have a significant impact on its financial results or financial position. However, because they relate to situations that could concern a large number of EDF’s employees, any increase in such litigations could have a potentially negative impact on EDF’s financial position.
Additionally, EDF regularly undergoes inspections by social security bodies such as URSSAF, some of which are currently in process.
