Dear bills, turnaround. L'Antitrust he adopted four precautionary measures towards Iren, Iberdrola, E.ON and the Dolomites, suppliers of electricity and natural gas on the free market. In this way the guarantor imposes a Iberdrola and E.ON to immediately apply the original conditions of the offer to customers. Dolomites and Iren they will in turn have to suspend the illegitimate communications of changes to the economic conditions of the offer.
After the opening of Antitrust investigations on 19 October, the Directorate General for Consumer Cloth, headed by Giovanni Calabrò, asked the companies to reinstate, immediately as a precaution, the rule which does not allow until April 30, 2023 to change contracts. The dispute concerned the failure to comply with the provisions of the Aid bis Decree of August 2022. The decree suspends the effectiveness of the contractual clauses that allow sales companies to change the supply price and the notices already sent to customers. The only exception concerns the communication of the changes before the entry into force of the Decree. The companies were then subjected to checks to ascertain incorrect practices and related precautionary requirements.
Antitrust: the modification of the contracts cannot take place until April 2023
However – writes theAntitrust – none of the companies has adequately justified its conduct, nor has it decided to change it. This is how the guarantor explains what happened:
- Iberdrola and E.ON have communicated to users the termination of the supply contract due to excessive onerousness, conditioning consumers to accept a new contract at different economic conditions or even inviting them to switch to alternative supplies.
- The Dolomites deemed valid the communications of unilateral modification of the supply price sent before the entry into force of the Aid Decree up to, while the rule only saves the "perfected" unilateral changes applied before the same date.
- Irenfinally, it improperly communicated to customers the expiry of the fixed-price offers to apply new and worsening supply conditions.
In the end for Iberdrola and E.On, now there is an obligation to apply the original offer conditions, in favor of consumers who have signed new contracts at worsening conditions and to allow supplies to return to the original conditions. For Dolmites and Iren, the Antitrust has established the suspension of the illegitimate communications of unilateral modification of the economic conditions of the offer.
Until April 2023 nothing can be touched. Obviously, the companies will also have to inform their customers and within 5 days they will have to inform the Antitrust itself.
Others are under observation 25 company: A2A Energia, Acea Energia, AGSM ENERGIA, Alleanza Luce & Gas, Alperia, AMGAS, ARGOS, Audax Energia, Axpo Italia, Bluenergy Group, Duferco Energia, Edison Energia, Enegan, Enel Energia, Engie Italia, Eni Plenitude, Enne Energia, Estra Energie, Hera Comm, Illumia, Optima Italia, Repower Italia, Sinergas, Sorgenia, Wekiwi. The Antitrust is awaiting information regarding the communications sent to customers, ready to intervene should they adopt similar behaviors to the other four companies subject to the precautionary measures.
