Czech Energy Regulatory Office received 622 consumer dispute requests last year, far more than before the crisis

The Energy Regulatory Office (ERÚ) received 622 requests from consumers to initiate dispute proceedings over contract breaches last year. The figure was similar year on year, but significantly higher than before the energy crisis. Consumers most often complained about energy bills. The number of informal submissions, by contrast, fell to pre-crisis levels, down a fifth year on year to 9673. The office said so in a press release today.

A request to the ERÚ to initiate dispute proceedings is a form of out-of-court dispute resolution between a consumer and a supplier or intermediary. According to the office, the number of people choosing this formal route rose sharply after the energy crisis. The office received 138 submissions in 2021, but a record 628 two years later. Last year’s figure came close to matching that level.

Consumers are better informed after the energy crisis, according to the office. „They are more persistent in resolving their problems and more willing to go through formal proceedings, which can actually help them enforce their rights. We have also focused much more on raising awareness in recent years, which is why we are receiving fewer recurring general questions. Instead, we are seeing more specific and complex cases, often caused by unfair or outright illegal practices by some suppliers,“ said Markéta Zemanová, a member of the ERÚ Council.

Among the most serious cases were customers waiting in vain for refunds of overpayments shown on their bills, and penalties for terminating a contract with a supplier early. „Typically, the most serious cases are not found across the market. They are caused by a handful of traders, who often use intermediaries operating as door-to-door salespeople,“ the council member noted. She did not name the companies.

Last year, the ERÚ recorded an increase in the use of contractual penalties and claims for damages. According to the office, suppliers often tend to keep their customers at any cost. In some cases, the penalties exceeded 100.000 crowns.

„If a supplier has agreed this directly in the contract, it can indeed demand compensation for damages from a consumer who terminates the contract early, in addition to a contractual penalty. However, consumers also contact us whose contracts do not provide for this possibility. One customer was even supposed to pay a total of 150.000 crowns, while the contractual penalty itself amounted to just a few thousand,“ Zemanová said.

She pointed out that compensation for damages must correspond to the trader’s direct financial loss caused by the customer leaving. However, the ERÚ does not decide whether a penalty is justified; in these cases, it can only contact the supplier informally.

According to the office, issues related to energy payments were the most common subject of both submissions and requests to initiate dispute proceedings. These included, in particular, complaints about missing bills and the practices of some suppliers that failed to refund customers’ overpayments. „In the second half of the year, we repeatedly encountered cases in which a new supplier acquired customers as part of what is known as a transfer of an undertaking. The new supplier thereby assumed the obligation to refund overpayments that had accrued earlier, but referred customers to the original trader and refused to pay the amount owed,“ the council member added.