As of: March 18, 2024, 12:25 p.m
By: Amy Walker
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Success for consumer advocates: Two energy providers have to pay back their price increases for electricity and gas according to a model declaratory action.
Sometimes it's about four-digit amounts.
Berlin - There is good news for customers of the two energy providers primastrom and voxenergie, both from Berlin: As the Federal Consumer Association reported on Monday (March 18), an out-of-court settlement was reached in the model declaratory action against the price increases for electricity and gas in 2022 be achieved.
“The companies have committed to withdrawing the price increases for the approximately 1,600 customers involved in the model declaratory actions and to refund any credit balances in full.
The amounts are sometimes in the four-digit range,” writes the consumer advice center in a statement.
Lawsuit against two energy providers successful
According to the consumer advice center, the background is the unlawful price increases for gas and electricity, which began in the second half of 2021 and continued in 2022.
Essentially, the lawsuit was about the following tariffs from the two energy providers:
Great gas bonus
Vox Gas Bonus
Great Bonus Home
Vox Bonus Home
The prices for these tariffs were increased even though the customers had actually taken out a contract period of 24 months with a price guarantee.
The price increases varied, but the consumer advice center cites cases in which the basic price was more than doubled.
The consumer advice center had already filed the lawsuit in November 2022.
The agreement that has now been reached means that voxenergie and primastrom now have to pay back the overpaid money in full to the affected customers.
For one affected person this was 5,500 euros, as the consumer advice center reports.
In return, the consumer advice center withdrew its lawsuit before the Berlin Court of Appeal.
Consumer advice center is suing several energy suppliers
Initially, only those customers who joined the lawsuit and are recorded in the lawsuit register will receive their money back.
But there should soon be an agreement for all other customers, the consumer advocates continued.
Information about this will be provided as soon as the negotiations have been concluded.
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Customers can look forward to a hefty repayment.
(Symbolic image) © Jochen Tack/imago
This is not the first time that primastrom and voxenergie have been targeted by consumer advocates.
As early as 2019, a consumer advice center in Lower Saxony filed a lawsuit against voxenergie because the deduction was difficult to reduce.
At that time too, the court agreed with the consumer advocates.
And in 2021 there were negative headlines about primastrom, which allegedly used “perfidious scams” to win customers, as the Baden-Württemberg consumer advice center described it.
The list of lawsuits, complaints and warnings has only grown longer in the wake of the energy crisis.
But these two are not the only ones who have been targeted by consumer advice centers.
Customers of the energy supplier ExtraEnergie can currently join a class action lawsuit, which also involves unacceptable price increases for electricity and gas.
Action is also being taken against excessive increases in district heating, currently against EON and Hansewerk Natur.