Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber) of 19 December 2019 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Cour de cassation — France) — GRDF SA v Eni Gas & Power France SA, Direct énergie, Commission de régulation de l’énergie, Procureur général at the Cour d’appel de Paris

(Case C-236/18) (1)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Common rules for the internal market in natural gas - Directive 2009/73/EC - Article 41(11) - Settlement of disputes concerning the obligations imposed on a system operator - Temporal effects of decisions of the dispute settlement authority - Legal certainty - Legitimate expectations)

(2020/C 68/03)

Language of the case: French

Referring court

Cour de cassation

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: GRDF SA

Defendants: Eni Gas & Power France SA, Direct énergie, Commission de régulation de l’énergie, Procureur général at the Cour d’appel de Paris

Operative part of the judgment

It follows from the foregoing considerations that the answer to the question referred is that Directive 2009/73/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas and repealing Directive 2003/55/EC must be interpreted as not precluding that the effects of a decision of a regulatory authority, referred to in Article 41(11) of that directive, extend to the situation of the parties to the dispute before that authority which prevailed between them before the emergence of that dispute, inter alia, as regards a contract for the transmission of natural gas, by requiring a party to that dispute to bring that contract into conformity with Union law for the entire contractual period.

---

(1)  OJ C 190, 4.6.2018.