Cooperative Mankala-companies – The Acceptability of the Company Form in EC Competition Law
Abstract
Due to economic necessities, a unique ownership model for energy production companies, the so-called Mankala-companies, has been developed in Finland. The purpose of the Mankala-companies is to produce affordable energy for their owners. Since the owners of the companies answer respectively for the production costs of the produced energy, they have not been considered to gain taxable profit, although the companies produce electricity at a price lower than the market price.
The Mankala-model has been seen as very important for the Finnish industry and has thus been allowed so far. However, due to the European Commission’s efforts to increase competition within the energy market and its unfavorable statements on similar arrangements with anticompetitive potential, there might be a need for reassessment of the acceptance of the model. On this account, the article tries to open the conversation around the issue although leaving the resolutions open for future evaluation.
