The liberalization of the electricity and gas market gets underway and the Antitrust sifts through the offers on the free market. The Authority announced that it has closed 13 investigations into the transparency of the contractual conditions offered by the most important companies in the sector. The balance is positive as in 11 cases the improvement commitments presented by the companies were accepted, to the benefit of consumers, and therefore the Antitrust decided not to proceed. While in the case of Argos and Sentra Energia, the Authority ascertained unfair commercial practices and established a fine of 2,16 million for Argos and one of 250 euros for Sentra Energia.
The eleven successful proceedings concerned Enel Energia, Optima, Green Network, Illumia, Wekiwi, Olimpia-Gruppo Sinergy, Gasway, Dolomiti Energia, E.On, Axpo and Audax.
The Antitrust then launched 6 new investigations against Visitel, Enne Energia, Ubroker, Bluenergy, Europe Energy and Ajò Energia, to ascertain the existence of similar criticalities in the offers offered to customers.
The free electricity market, in particular, is progressing in stages towards full liberalization which will take effect for all domestic customers from 1 January 2023. This is also why the Antitrust, which monitors unfair commercial practices, keeps the light on operator behaviors. The investigations, states the press release released by the Authority, are based “on an extensive analysis of the contractual and promotional documentation of the commercial offers proposed by the main operators in the sector and on the examination of numerous reports from consumers. From these they emerged critical issues and a general deceptiveness o omission of information on some components of the supply price of electricity and gas on the free market and, often, the provision of hidden, improper and undue charges by consumers”.
To give a few examples, in the offers examined, the Authority verified that the Marketing and Sale Price (Pcv) for electricity and the Retail Sale Quota (Qvd) for gas were not indicated. Often advertising is limited to advertising only the price of the "complete energy" neglecting the other charges that significantly affect the final price to the consumer.
“Furthermore – continues the press release – some offers included improper charges denominated in various ways, bill delivery costs or penalties, also in the form of reversal of the discounts granted at the time of signing the contract - moreover in contrast with the current regulation - which were applied regularly or in the event of early withdrawal from the supply contract ”.
The Authority, also on the basis of an opinion provided by the Energy Authority (Arera), accepted the commitments "provided that the sales companies guarantee clarity and completeness of the electricity and gas supply prices" both in the contracts and in promotional material.
Finally, through 3 interventions by moral suasion, the Antitrust has invited Eni gas and electricity, A2A and Sorgenia to make current and future promotional communications clearer and more complete, indicating with the same graphic evidence all the charges applied by the sales companies for the supply of electricity and gas” thus facilitating comparison by consumers on the offered on the free market. The monitoring activity does not end here: the Authority will continue in view of 1 January 2023.
