Support through the preparation of short economic reports

The Contractor shall support the Federal Network Agency in dealing with individual legal issues by means of brief expert opinions under commercial law, in particular in the following subject areas:

- In the area of unbundling, commercial and corporate law as well as tax law issues regularly arise. In the future, for example, questions in connection with the structural effects of the implementation of the ECJ judgment of 02.09.21 (Case C-78/18) are conceivable in the pleas relevant to unbundling.

- Hydrogen is in focus both as an alternative energy carrier to natural gas and for climate policy reasons. While the EnWG currently subjects only pure hydrogen networks to voluntary regulation, questions about the concrete design of the hydrogen infrastructure will arise in the future. In addition to commercial and corporate law aspects, both environmental law and financial constitutional dimensions are conceivable here.

- The rights of consumers have been strengthened and extended in the EnWG. This regularly raises more in-depth civil and antitrust law issues, especially in relation to energy law standards. However, questions of personnel, technical and economic performance as well as reliability of the management of energy suppliers, as well as questions regarding the termination of energy supply, are also conceivable.

- In addition, current issues such as the tense situation as a result of the Ukraine war and energy security issues pose enormous challenges for the various players in the energy market and the Federal Network Agency. In addition to aspects of foreign trade law, issues from the areas of constitutional, administrative, insolvency, securities trading and antitrust law are relevant here. But new questions are also conceivable.

- Increasingly, energy law is being considered holistically across the various sectors. This can give rise to questions of commercial law regarding the generation as well as with regard to the integration of district heating, as well as their interactions for electricity and gas regulation.

The audit assignments must be documented and accompanied by a vote that conclusively evaluates the named facts from the point of view of the experts.