Fine of 2,875 million euros by the Antitrust for Enegan, a Roman company that supplies electricity and gas. At the basis of the sanction imposed by the Competition and Market Authority is the invoicing of charges not due by users.
According to the Antitrust, Enegan would have adopted unfair practices in the context of the supply of electricity and gas services billing “various cost items and cancellation fees” that users should not have had to pay and failing to provide customers with “material and transparent information about the nature of these charges”.
In detail, the Authority ascertained that those who asked to withdraw from the Enegan contract "were charged charges by way of recovery of the activation costs which represented, vice versa, penalties for leaving the contract, which the Company reversed on the invoice only following repeated customer complaints”, reads the Antitrust note. The same company also charged users with additional charges determined erroneously, not envisaged in the contracts signed by customers (equalization charges) or postal charges in contrast with current legislation.
“In other cases, Enegan has unilaterally changed the economic conditions of the contracts, without sending a prior communication, preventing its customers from withdrawing without charge from the supply contract, in the event of non-acceptance of the economic variations”, continues the Antitrust.
A behavior that has led many customers to complain on the basis of reasons that Enegan herself often and willingly considered as well-founded. It is no coincidence, once again underlines the Authority, once the complaints have been received, the same company “acknowledged that the disputed charges were not due and derived from malfunctions or anomalies in the billing system, until proceeding with the related reversal".
A behavior that the Antitrust has decided to sanction with a hefty fine despite the fact that before the closure of the proceeding Enegan had already taken measures aimed at modifying its billing policy.
