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What about unilateral changes to fixed tariff contracts

By Harry Floudopoulos

In recent days, consumers have received complaints from the Energy Regulatory Authority claiming that the fixed electricity tariffs have been unilaterally adjusted. That is, while they had signed a fixed charge contract with their suppliers, the company then proceeded to adjust the contract by unilaterally changing the terms.

According to market sources, addressed to Capital.gr, these complaints are grounded, as in fact supply companies have proceeded to unilaterally modify the terms of fixed contracts. This modification, as the same sources point out, is not arbitrary but is based on a provision of the supply code, which states that the supplier may proceed to unilateral change of terms of the contract, if he invokes extremely unfavorable conditions. A condition for such a modification is that six months have passed since the signing of the contract and the consumer is notified at least 60 days before the change, so that he can choose another program or another supplier. In other words, the consumer is given the opportunity to leave the company without being able to impose withdrawal clauses or other additional charges.

What are the extremely unfavorable conditions invoked by the companies that proceeded to amend the contracts? The fact that wholesale prices have been derailed, with the result that companies buy electricity from the system at 300 euros / MWh, which they then had to sell at 90 euros / MWh for fixed tariffs.

However, as the same market sources point out, these unilateral amendments to the contracts are extremely limited and concern a small number of consumers. As PPC officially announced yesterday, which is also the provider with the most fixed contracts, about 500 thousand in number, itself did not proceed to any unilateral modification. In the rest of the private providers, the cases of fixed tariffs were extremely limited and mostly related to professional Medium Voltage tariffs.

The question that arises regarding the specific moves by companies is whether and to what extent the provisions and deadlines of the supply code were met in relation to the proper informing of the consumer about the unilateral modification of the contracts. “The right information is an issue,” admit the same sources in the supply market.

Source: Capital

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