German power supplier RWE said Thursday it is joining its bigger rival E.ON in filing a complaint with Germany's highest court over compensation for the government's decision to abandon nuclear power.

RWE chief executive Juergen Grossmann told group shareholders at their annual general meeting that a corresponding lawsuit had been filed with the German constitutional court in February.

E.ON already undertook such a move in November.

Both companies argue that the nuclear exit decision has harmed their proprietary rights as they had to shut down reactors early.

Last year, E.ON said the suit was not about the pull-out from nuclear energy per se, which is largely the will of the German population, but about the lack of compensation for the companies affected by the energy policy U-turn.

Both companies have seen profits fall sharply owing to the shutdown of power plants as part of Germany's policy to abandon nuclear energy.

In the wake of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, the German government decided to phase out nuclear power, forcing energy suppliers to shut down their profitable large-scale power plants and also levying a tax on the reactors' fuel for their remaining lifespan.

--- Dow Jone Newswire contributed to this report ---