Habeck's gas allocation could be illegal: the law firm is examining the lawsuit

Created: 08/26/2022, 05:35

By: Moritz Serif

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (right) and Vice Robert Habeck are expecting a turbulent autumn.

© Kay Nietfeld/dpa/picture alliance

Does the gas surcharge violate the constitution?

This position is represented by a law firm in Berlin.

A Union politician also sees shortcomings.

Berlin – “The clumsy implementation of the gas levy means that companies get billions, although many of them are currently making strong profits.

Consumers will hardly benefit.

The unconstitutional unequal treatment will lead to a wave of lawsuits," says Thomas Heilmann, board member of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group and member of the Committee for Climate and Energy, the

.

It is an unfair additional burden.

The Berlin law firm Raue also considers the gas levy in its current form to be unconstitutional, as reported by fr.de.

The corresponding paper is available from the Hamburg news magazine.

Accordingly, it is not suitable for averting price increases caused by insolvencies by importers such as Uniper.

Rather, the measure would drive up prices on the gas market even further.

In addition, consumers are disproportionately burdened.

Gas surcharge unconstitutional?

Law firm sees flaws

For example, municipal utilities should retain their margin in full.

End customers would have to pay the surcharge.

According to the paper, there is no reason for this.

In addition, companies and consumers would have to pay even if their gas prices had increased significantly.

The government does not differentiate between people who have cheap contracts and those who have to pay more money.

This is a violation of the principle of equality according to Art. 3 para. 1 GG.

According to the law, the state has a fundamental obligation to treat everyone equally.

Unequal treatment is therefore only possible if it is constitutionally justified.

However, there are strict requirements for this.

Even healthy companies get a gas surcharge

Ultimately, even companies that are not at risk of insolvency would receive the gas surcharge.

This would make it unnecessarily expensive for consumers.

For example, the energy supplier EWE buys only 1.5 percent of the gas from Russia.

Gunvor and OMV had submitted applications, although they benefited massively from rising prices.

Social organizations had recently called on the government to make improvements.

Ramona Pop, head of the Federation of Consumer Organizations, called on the federal government to postpone the levy.

Until then, the state should bear the costs, the

reported .

Some companies are considering whether to file a lawsuit against the measure.

Economics Minister Habeck said that the levy was "not an easy step, but it is necessary to secure the heat and energy supply in private households and in the economy".

(mse)