MIBEL: the beginning of the scam

Abstract

The so-called reform of the electricity sector – the transformation of a public monopoly, based on a vertically integrated company, into a market where private companies compete – imposed, in part, by EU directives and primarily desired by business and political “elites,” has raised serious doubts in academic circles, particularly in legal and economic scholarship. Doubts which have always seemed well-founded, and which the new legislative measures in the sector indirectly confirm. It is in this context of mistrust, briefly outlined here, that we propose to analyze MIBEL, assessing whether it constitutes the first “stillborn” attempt at establishing an electricity market or not.