Judgment of the Tribunal concluding that the access price which Dŵr Cymru proposed to charge Albion for common carriage of non-potable water through part of its water pipe network (known as the “Ashgrove system”) was so excessive as to amount to an unfair price and thus an abuse of a dominant position.
In making this finding, the Tribunal found that the quoted access price materially exceeded the costs reasonably attributable to the service of the transportation and partial treatment of water by Dŵr Cymru, generally and through the Ashgrove system in particular, i.e. that it was excessive.
The Tribunal also found that the “economic value” of the services to be supplied was not more, or not significantly more, than the costs reasonably attributable to the service of the transportation and partial treatment of water by Dŵr Cymru, generally and through the Ashgrove system in particular.
The Tribunal decided that the access price bore no reasonable relation to the economic value of the services to be supplied, and had both an exclusionary and exploitative effect. On this basis, the Tribunal concluded that the access price was unfair in itself and therefore an abuse of Dŵr Cymru’s dominant position contrary to the Chapter II prohibition.
