The Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court rules in favor of Ørsted in cases concerning the former Elsam

Today, the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court has delivered its judgement in favour of Ørsted in six cases, where the plaintiffs have claimed damages totalling up to DKK 416 million plus statutory interest (today around DKK 712 million in statutory interests) from Ørsted due to an alleged infringement of competition law by the former Elsam (now part of Ørsted).

Ørsted is satisfied with the court’s judgement, which is in line with the arguments provided by Ørsted that the plaintiffs are not entitled to any damages. Today’s judgement can be appealed by the plaintiffs.

Background

The cases were selected as being representative for more than 1,000 cases, where plaintiffs have claimed damages based on Elsam allegedly having abused its dominant position by charging excessive prices in the market for wholesale of physical electricity in Western Denmark in the period from 1 July 2003 to 31 December 2006.

The cases were filed in 2007 before the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court. Initially, the claims were based on decisions from the Danish competition authorities, whereby the plaintiffs argued that due to the excessive pricing alleged by the Danish competition authorities, they had lost around DKK 4.4 billion plus statutory interest (today around DKK 7.5 billion in statutory interests).

In 2018, Ørsted won the cases against the Danish competition authorities, but the plaintiffs continued their cases, now contending that they were able to demonstrate an infringement of competition law independently. For the six cases, the plaintiffs have revised their original claims, leading to lower claims in total, but they have not provided the revised claims for the remaining plaintiffs.