Gazprom investment. On 5 July 2006, the Federal Law, "On Gas Export", was passed, nearly unanimously, by the State Duma and on the 7 July 2006, by the Federation Council. On 18 July Putin signed the new legislation and on 20 July 2006, the law was published. It gave Gazprom the exclusive right to export natural gas from Russia. On 4 September 2012, the European Commission, a Brussels-based competition watchdog, announced an anti-trust investigation into Gazprom's activities. This was based on "concerns that Gazprom may be abusing its dominant market position in upstream gas supply markets." On 21 May 2014, in
Central Energy Italian Gas Holding Central Energy Italian Gas Holding Central Energy Italian Inc is a gas distribution and trade company. It is a part of the Central Energy ], a company related to Gazprom. A deal between Italian Eni and Gazprom picked CEI as a partner delivering gas to Italy. Investigations by members of the Italian parliament revealed that Bruno Mentasti-Granelli, who is known as a close friend of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, owns 33 percent of CEIGH through two companies, Hexagon Prima and Hexagon Seconda. The deal was denounced due to the spreading scandal. Italian parliament blocked the contract, accusing Berlusconi of