The Competition Appeal Tribunal’s judgment did not uphold in full Ofgem’s 2008 decision that National Grid had infringed the Competition Act.

Although the Tribunal found that certain aspects of our legacy gas metering contracts were unacceptable, it recognised that Ofgem was involved in the development of the contracts and stated in its judgment: “We can well understand National Grid’s surprise and dismay when the Authority opened its investigation into these agreements … and imposed such a substantial fine”.

The Tribunal also found that there was no abuse in respect of our new and replacement gas metering contracts, justifying our decision to appeal, and therefore we are disappointed that the £41.6m fine originally imposed has only been reduced to £30m.

We continue to believe that our gas metering contracts have not harmed consumers, competition or gas suppliers.  We will now thoroughly review the judgment and consider our next steps.