Invoicing, the government allows suppliers to raise prices for those with expired contracts. Here’s how to defend yourself

Finally takes the field government to try to solve it Chaos over one-sided differences Electricity and gas tariff Suggested by companies to their users Despite his ban Assistance decree bis. However, the orientation is not in favor consumersand some of them can be in particular Consists With Invoices More salty to get companies to regain what they have lost. with a pass in Millebrough Decreewhich was approved last December 21, the executive branch ban extension Changes from April 30 to June 30, 2023 but also illustrates the point most controversial by companies. Prove that the block does not apply to it Expired contracts. So users who are part of this audience should look for a better offer using Portal progress affiliateenergy authority.

What Millbrughe says – “The first period does not apply to contractual clauses that allow the company supplying electricity and natural gas Update contractual economic terms upon expiration, in accordance with the contractually stipulated notice terms and without prejudice to the right to withdrawal counterparty,” reads the latest draft of the decree that has not yet been published in the Official Gazette. The legality or illegality of the ban on tariff changes also for contracts whose term has expired has been called into question. Controversial, around which the companies waged a difficult legal battle. L’Antitrustin its most recent action, It also extended the freeze to include expired contracts, an interpretation that is contested Obviously from suppliers. which, starting with ErinDolomiti and Enel appealed to the Council of State and Tartar to confirm their position.

statements of the State Council – The judgment on the merits of the Lazio Regional Administrative Court is expected in mid-February, and in recent days the Council of State approved Irene’s request to suspend the precautionary measure precisely in part of the expired contracts imposed by the antitrust, in agreement with the interpretation from the community. According to CdS, the guarantor authority of Competition It would give “a broad interpretation of the restrictive text of the law which It can lead to bias affecting individual companies or future regulars who do not appear to have been adequately evaluated,” the decree reads.

Indeed, the benefits of the law as it was born in Aiuti bis dl is questionable from all points of view. Some companies, especially resellers who are in great difficulty due to high prices, may not renew contracts that have expired if they do not go bankrupt outright. So much so that in recent months several suppliers have sent letters to customers to cancel an existing contract claiming that they can no longer guarantee the same terms.

risks to consumers – Moreover, there is a risk that, in the face of a price frozen until June for “lucky” contracts (that is, those that fall within the norm), companies will now try to recover what they have lost by renewing expired contracts and generally on all contracts that do not fall within the norm. All without any consideration income and different economic situations, but on a completely random principle: If the contract expires before June 30th, the bite comes, if it expires after you are protected. In any case, when the embargo ends, companies will still try to make up for it. Already this summer, Irene himself admitted in contact with clients that “the result was not foreseen by the regulations” (dl duplicate help, editor) It will be that “when the contracts expire (mostly from December 1, 2022) these prices will be affected significantly, and in one detachment in the middle of the winter period, due to the increase in raw material costs in recent weeks.”

In short, the picture looks bleak. Just while for users who haven’t switched to free market but still have Enhanced protection contracts Gas cost – at estimates Nomisma Energy – In December it will rise by 20% (in contrast to electricity, which is expected to decrease by 25% in the first quarter of 2023).

How and when to choose a new supplier – So what can consumers do stand up for yourself First of all, we need to make sure that our contract is within the unary changes block. In fact, the rule applies only to those who have stipulated a contract in the “free market” at a fixed price or to the fixed part of the contracts always in the “free market” at a variable rate, while the remaining part continues to change according to the direction of Pun for electricity and PSV for gas.

If we go back to the block but the resource forces a change that is too cumbersome, we can always change. There are many portals that compare different offers, including those of consumer associations and the offer portal ofenergy authoritywhich established, among other things, that from January 2023 sellers will have to include the invoice – separate and with due proof – to the Arera consumer web page, with information on the ‘electricity and gas offer portal’ (to provide information on switching to another supplier and familiarize yourself with price comparison tools), the “Consumer Office for Energy and the Environment” (for information on dispute resolution and the publication of current offers) and the “Consumer Portal” (for comparison of the customer’s current electricity consumption with the same period in the previous year, as well as for access to supplementary information on consumption and historical use).

from their side , SOStariffe.it And the Hound. it He warned that “electricity and gas are the only markets in which – if we are not informed – we have a lot of difficulty (perhaps we cannot today at all) understand how much we pay and what are the real commercial conditions in which the resource books us”. The two comparators have tried to explain the following: There are only two factors that consumers can interfere with to reduce spending. To assess the suitability of the offer, it is necessary to find out fixed cost of supply, regardless of consumption and expressed on a monthly or annual basis, and the unit cost of energy, expressed in EUR/kWh for electricity and EUR/m3 for gas. And know how these two factors differ over time. For indexed prices, the energy cost is updated monthly. However, for flat rates, it depends on the length of the promotional period.