German Federal Cartel Office signs-off on cooperation between pipeline operators

Like the European Commission in a series of other projects, the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) assessed and signed-off on ESG-related collaboration between competitors. 

The FCO informed the public in a press release on August 5, 2025 that it had no concerns about the joint construction and operation of two CO² pipelines in Germany (one in the Eastern and one in the Western part of Germany) by Open Grid Europe GmbH and ONTRAS Gastransport GmbH and Belgian Fluxys S.A. respectively.

The FCO concluded that without their cooperation, none of these companies would have pursued such projects unilaterally over the next few years. In its press release, the FCO highlighted the importance of these two projects for sufficient carbon capture and storage (CCS) capabilities for waste incineration as well as for lime and cement production. The planned pipelines are supposed to transport CO² to offshore long-term storage sites under the North Sea and the Danish mainland. The FCO's assessment coincides with the German Government’s decision, on August 6, 2025, to propose an amendment to the German CCS law to further facilitate CCS and carbon capture and utilization.

While signing-off on the two projects at hand, the FCO stressed the importance of compliance with antitrust law, stating that new projects of similar scale would have to be examined more closely. Further, it reminded the partners only to cooperate to the extent that this is necessary for the realization of the two projects.