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More protection for electricity customers: Federal government plans legal reform

2022-01-24T07:09:30.835Z


Low-cost suppliers of electricity and gas should no longer be able to terminate contracts at short notice or drastically increase prices. The federal government also intends to prescribe uniform tariffs for basic services.


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Among other things, the federal government intends to prevent gigantic price jumps at energy suppliers

Photo: Uli Deck / dpa

With a legal reform, the federal government wants to put a stop to short-term terminations of electricity and gas contracts by cheap suppliers and price jumps. "We must not leave consumers out in the rain like this again," said Oliver Krischer, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics. "It was and is a great burden for many people and a great shock to suddenly find a cancellation from the gas or electricity provider in the mailbox," said the Green politician.

Specifically, Krischer announced that there should be uniform tariffs in the basic service in the future, so that new customers do not pay twice or three times as much as existing customers.

"Split basic service tariffs are ultimately just an unnecessary employment program for courts, which we want to avoid." Split tariffs mean a split for new and existing customers.

In addition, the termination of gas or electricity deliveries should in future have to be announced several months in advance so that consumers can look for a new supplier in peace, says Krischer.

Dubious competitors should be better filtered out

The ministry wants to react to the fact that many low-cost providers have experienced turbulence and thousands of contracts have been terminated.

These consumers then fall into the so-called replacement supply with the basic supplier of the respective municipality - but according to the consumer advice centers often have to pay significantly more.

The ministry will also make suggestions as to how the Federal Network Agency can better filter out dubious competitors.

"The fact that around one million gas and electricity customers are terminated within a very short time must not be repeated."

Consumers would have to pay up to 1654 euros more per year for new customer tariffs than existing customers, according to a position paper by the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations.

Some basic suppliers, who have previously purchased electricity or gas for their customers for a longer period of time and, in view of the current price increases, feel compelled to buy additional energy earlier than planned on the spot market at significantly higher prices due to the increased number of new customers.

As a result, some basic suppliers have switched to distinguishing between new and existing customers and supplying new customers at more expensive tariffs.

From the point of view of the consumer advice centers, however, this is legally inadmissible, dangerous for fair competition and also incomprehensible.

According to information from the consumer advice centers, there are already seven warnings nationwide and one threat due to the cessation of electricity supplies, the termination of contracts or extreme price increases.

Further warnings are planned.

From circles in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, it was said that concrete proposals for adjustments to the Energy Industry Act would now be quickly drawn up in close cooperation with the Ministry of Consumer Protection.

It is about more protection for consumers through clear notice periods before deliveries are stopped and about improvements in the regulations for alternative supply and basic supply.

svs/dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-01-24

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