The Antitrust enters again, and heavily, on the matter of changes to electricity and gas contracts. A very sensitive issue for Italian families, in the light of bill flight which – since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine with the well-known consequences on inflation and energy prices – has jeopardized domestic budgets. L’Authority for competition and the market launched seven investigations and adopted seven precautionary measures against Enel, Eni, Hera, A2A, Edison, Acea and Engie for alleged unlawful unilateral changes to the supply price of electricity and natural gas. A game of 7 and a half million contracts, with 2.6 million consumers who are already paying more than they should. Now, says the Authority, the businesses will have to”suspend the application of the new conditions economic, maintaining or restoring the prices practiced before 10 August 2022 and, moreover, they will have to communicate to the Authority the measures they will adopt in this regard. Within seven days, companies will be able to defend themselves and the Authority will be able to confirm or not the precautionary measures”.
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Already at the end of October, the Authority had moved with four similar measures and now proceeds “against the main companies supplying electricity and natural gas on the free marketrepresenting about 80% of the market. Under the lens of the Authority – and in particular the investigations were conducted by the DG for Consumer Protection directed by Giovanni Calabro – the proposals to change the price of electricity and natural gas supply and the subsequent proposals to renew the contractual conditions, in contrast with art. 3 of the Decree Law of 9 August 2022 n. 115 (so-called Aid bis), converted into Law no. 142 of 21 September 2022″.
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Increases prohibited by law
The reference to the Aiuti bis refers to the suspensionfrom 10 August to 30 April 2023, of the effectiveness of both the contractual clauses that allow sales companies to change the supply price and the related notice communications, unless the price changes have already been finalized before the entry into force of the decree itself. These interventions – explains the Antitrust – “add to the four investigative proceedings and the same number of precautionary measures adopted against the companies Iron, Dolomite, E.On and Iberdrola and follow an extensive pre-investigation activity carried out on 25 companies, from which it emerged that around half of the operators concerned complied with the law avoiding changing the economic conditions – after 10 August 2022 – or revoking the illegally applied increases”.
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The seven companies are challenged for not suspending the communications of proposal to unilaterally change the economic conditionssent before 10 August 2022 and, subsequently, the proposals to update or renew the supply prices, of a pejorative nature, justified on the basis of the alleged expiry of the fixed-price offers. Acea is also contested about the alleged effectiveness of the communications of unilateral modification of the supply price because they were sent before the entry into force of the Aid bis Decree (10 August 2022) and not “completed” before the same date.
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They need to go back to prices before August 10th
According to reports from the Agcm itself, there are over 7.5 million consumers interested in price changes, and 2.6 million those to whom “unjustified increases” in energy and gas have been applied. “On the basis of the data provided by the companies themselves, it appears that consumers, condominiums and micro-enterprises affected by communications of changes in economic conditions are 7,546,963, of which approximately 2,667,127 have already suffered an unjustified price increase – we read in the note on the provision – The companies will therefore have to suspend the application of the new economic conditions, maintaining or restoring the prices charged before 10 August 2022 and, moreover, they will have to communicate to the Authority the measures they will adopt in this regard”.
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