As of: March 2, 2024, 5:04 a.m
By: Lars-Eric Nievelstein
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Press
Split
Since 2020, district heating prices at the energy company Eon have risen significantly.
The VZBV filed a lawsuit against this.
Customers can now join the class action lawsuit.
Berlin – At the beginning of the year, Leonard Birnbaum, CEO of the energy giant Eon, warned of rising prices.
“After the previous price reductions, electricity and gas may become more expensive again from 2024,” he told the Rheinische Post.
By this he meant the measures taken by the federal government, which reduced the sales tax rates on gas and district heating after the start of the Ukraine war.
However, E.on had already raised its prices significantly beforehand.
That was enough for the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv) to launch a class action lawsuit.
Massive price increase at Eon – vzbv wants to sue for repayments
“Many customers of the district heating provider Eon currently have to pay many times more for heating their living spaces than in 2020,” the vzbv announced in November 2023.
The federal association considered these price increases to be unlawful in many supply areas.
The result was two class action lawsuits, which customers can now join.
An E.ON building in Bucharest, photographed from the outside.
Since 2020, district heating prices at the energy company E.ON have risen significantly.
The VZBV filed a lawsuit against this.
© IMAGO / Pond5 Images
“No competition, no freedom of choice, low price transparency: the district heating market in Germany is anything but consumer-friendly,” said Ramona Pop, board member at vzbv.
Eon (and also Hansewerk Natur, against which the association also filed a lawsuit) would lack the legal requirements for the “enormous and non-transparent price increases”.
On Monday, the responsible Federal Office of Justice opened the corresponding lawsuit register, reported
n-tv
.
“With the two class action lawsuits, the vzbv wants to claim direct refunds for participating consumers.” According to an initial estimate, this involves up to four-digit amounts.
3,500 euros additional costs in 2 years for consumers
The vzbv considers the price increases of the past few years at E.ON and Hansewerk Natur to be ineffective because the existing price change clauses do not meet the legal requirements.
Specifically, the association is taking action against price increases that E.ON implemented after 2020.
For example, the gross labor price in the Erkrath-Hochdahl (NRW) supply area rose from 6.18 cents per kilowatt hour to 23.24 cents between 2020 and 2022.
With an annual consumption of 15,000 kilowatt hours, that would be an additional cost of 3,500 euros in 2021 and 2022.
Eon itself stated that the district heating prices would follow the legal requirements.
“The pricing is based on price components that are based on published basic data from the Federal Statistical Office that can be viewed at any time,” a company spokeswoman told newspapers from the Funke media group.
This ensures an objective and independent basis for such price changes.
Throughout the year, the group passed on the reduced tax rate of seven percent to customers, even though the obligation to do so only existed from October.
Another class action lawsuit against ExtraEnergie is ongoing
vzbv had also filed a class action lawsuit against the energy provider ExtraEnergie GmbH.
The reason.
In July 2022, the provider “massively increased the prices for gas and electricity customers”.
In some cases these rose by more than 200 percent; the providers are said to have ignored agreed price guarantees.
ExtraEnergie GmbH includes, among others, ExtraEnergie, Extragrün, HitEnergie and Prioenergie.
According to the vzbv, the increases are therefore inadmissible.
Here too, the goal is to obtain refunds for affected customers.
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“Energy providers are not allowed to ask consumers to pay across the board because purchase prices have increased.
With the class action lawsuit, the vzbv is lobbying the court to ensure that those affected receive back money that they have paid too much directly from ExtraEnergie,” explained Ramona Pop.
“Many people are affected and a lot of money is at stake.
Depending on the case scenario, repayments of several thousand euros are conceivable.” According to vzbv estimates, more than 100,000 consumers will be affected by the price increases.
They can now enter the lawsuit register free of charge and thus join the lawsuit.
The pricing of district heating alarms experts again and again.
Only recently was the news in the media that many district heating customers had to make high additional payments.
But how the price is determined is not always clear.