Suppliers’ unfair practices have disappeared since the energy crisis, says ERÚ councillor Zemanová

Tens of thousands of households have dealt with, and continue to deal with, problems related to the energy market crisis. This is hardly surprising: during the energy crisis, electricity prices and exchange-traded gas prices rose to several times their original levels. This forced several electricity and gas suppliers to cease operations. The best-known example of a supplier collapse is undoubtedly Bohemia Energy, which affected hundreds of thousands of customers. Other suppliers survived only because they resorted to unfair practices. Most often, suppliers moved customers onto less favourable price plans without their consent.

According to Markéta Zemanová, a councillor at the Energy Regulatory Office (ERÚ), these practices no longer occur: “In practice, traders no longer resort to this today. However, we are retrospectively imposing very high fines on suppliers for failing to honour fixed prices.”

What issues do consumers most frequently bring to the Energy Regulatory Office (ERÚ)? How have their complaints changed over time? And what does this say about the practices of electricity and gas traders? Markéta Zemanová discusses these and other issues.