Rome – Energy companies score a point in favor of engaging withAntitrust on renewal Invoices. the Council of State It rejected in large part the ruling by which the competition protection authority halted the renewal of energy supply contracts by referring to a decree Draghi government.

According to the State Council to which he appealed Erin group (benefit in Northern Italy), the antitrust clause can be considered “legally existing when unilateral changes are involved”, while it is not when we are dealing with “the situation of price updating due to the renewal of an expired contract”.

In other words, the services They cannot change contractual terms unilaterally, but they are not wrong when contract expires. This is the case for those who subscribed, for example, to a “discounted” offer at the end of 2020, for a period of two years, which has expired in recent months. According to the State Council, the utilities could not change the contractual terms during the two years (possibly to avoid power supply at a loss), but had to wait until the end of the supply period.

Basically, the administrative judges blamed the antitrust for its broad interpretation of the clause contained in the decree of the Draghi government. (Help duplicate) through which the effectiveness of both the contractual clauses allowing sales companies to change the supply price and the communications notices were suspended until April 30, 2023, unless the changes had already been completed before the same decree entered into force.

Now the decision on the merits is up to Lazio tarScheduled for February, but the indications in the State Council ruling will certainly have weight.

But what will be the practical consequences for me consumers? For now, nothing needs to be changed, because utilities will most likely wait for the tar verdict. But they can also decide, in the case of offers that expire, to send a new price proposal. The consumer can always decide to change the supplier.

Moreover, antitrust intervened in two stages. first vs Erin, Iberdrola, Eun, and the Dolomites, suppliers of electricity and natural gas in the free market. Then he opened seven investigations (with seven precautionary measures) against her Enel, Eni, A2a, Edison, Acea, EngieAgain due to alleged unilateral illegal changes in electricity and gas prices. All service providers who are now watching with great interest happen in the administrative courts.