The liberalization of the electricity market in Austria aspects of competition and deregulation

The subject of the thesis is the deregulation of the Austrian electricity market. It starts with an introduction in the historical background of the legal basis, which until 1998 had been determined exclusively by national law. The main fields of interest in this chapter lay within the federal nature of Austrian electricity law. The next chapter deals with electricity in European Community law, it focuses on the fundamental freedoms of the Treaty on one hand and the Directive 96/92 on Common Provisions for the Electricity Markets on the other. On the basis of this introduction, the Austrian National Electricity Law (e.g. the 'Elektrizitaewirtschafts- und -organisationsgesetz 1998' and the 'Energieliberalisierungsgesetz 2000') has to be assessed. It can be shown that the transformation of Community Law has only partly been successful. Only on the basis of this national and European regulatory framework, an evaluation of the current situation is made according to the principles of competition law (e.g. horizontal agreements, abuse of market power, merger control, state aid). Either national and Community competition law is being discussed, as Community competition law also applies to competition restrictions that are caused by state action. The Austrian way of furthering renewable energies can be named as an example for an insufficient transformation. The last chapter focuses on various aspects of contract law in the deregulated market. Finally, a short summary presents the academic results of the thesis. (author)