Quadruple prices, questionable price clauses: the energy supplier Eon enrages its customers.
Consumer centers now want to file a class action lawsuit.
Munich/Berlin – The district heating provider Eon has drastically increased its prices between 2020 and 2022.
The Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv) considers the price increases to be illegal and is examining a model lawsuit.
Consumers are now being sought who are affected by the price increase for district heating by Eon and would like to file a lawsuit.
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Quadruple prices, questionable price clauses: Consumer centers want to file class action lawsuits against Eon.
© IMAGO/Rupert Oberhäuser
Eon rip-off causes customer shitstorm: consumer advice center examines lawsuit
In the course of the energy crisis, the prices for district heating have also risen to astronomical heights.
Millions of households in Germany heat with district heating - and, according to consumer advocates, are faced with completely exorbitant costs.
This also applies to Eon customers, who are threatened with additional payments of up to 3000 euros, some of which are drastic.
An example: In the Hamburg-Lohbrügge supply area, the net working price in 2020 was 3.79 cents, in 2022 Eon called 17.20 cents per kWh.
That's more than a quadrupling.
For district heating customers with an annual consumption of 15,000 kWh, for example, this means additional costs of over 3000 euros gross per year.
Quadruple district heating tariffs at Eon
Consumer advocates are now warning "completely frightened" customers about rip-offs by Eon.
The Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv) has found that Eon has made similar price increases for district heating in many areas, which often means additional costs of several thousand euros for consumers.
With these price increases, Eon relies on clauses in the contract that allow a change in price: “With the price increases, Eon relies on price change clauses in the contract.
However, we consider these increases to be unlawful, as we understand the price change clauses to be illegal,” explains Ronny Jahn, team leader for model declaratory
actions at the Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband eV to
Merkur.de
from
IPPEN.MEDIA.
Consumer centers want to bring a class action: “Consumers should get their money back”
The association is therefore now examining a model declaratory action – and is now looking for those affected.
Eon customers who are affected by the drastic price increases can register under the call on the website of the Federation of Consumer Organizations.
"We consider the price increase, as it presents itself to us, to be ineffective," said Jahn.
"We want to use a so-called model lawsuit, a class action lawsuit under German law, to ensure that Eon has to pay the customers back the excessive deductions".
Prices have increased significantly across the energy sector since 2022, not just for electricity and gas, but also for district heating.
The consumer advice center has just warned of “completely excessive March discounts”.
Despite the price brakes for electricity and gas, with which the federal government wants to relieve consumers, some energy companies billed discounts in the four-digit range.
Eon with a big profit in 2022: Further price increases for 2023 cannot be ruled out
The energy group Eon had announced an adjusted net profit of 2.7 billion euros (plus nine percent) for 2022, CEO Leonhard Birnbaum spoke of a "strong result" - and at the same time announced that further price increases in 2023 were not excluded.
List of rubrics: © IMAGO/Rupert Oberhäuser
