Energy suppliers pay back money compared to consumers
Consumer advocates and the Primaholding corporate group reached an out-of-court settlement and expanded their comparison agreement from the beginning of the year. In March, the two providers, Primastrom and Voxenergie, had agreed to make repayments to their customers and committed to refunding price increases for around 1600 consumers involved in model declaratory proceedings and refunding any credits in full. The Consumer Center withdrew its lawsuit against unauthorized price increases from the Berlin Regional Court.
The new out-of-court settlement now expands the group of those who benefit, the vzbv announced on Tuesday, noting that companies in the Primaholding group had acted unlawfully towards customers in several cases. In the past years, energy providers had rejected cancellations as delayed and had not released customers from their contracts. Depending on the individual case, customers can now "leave their contracts immediately or earlier than expected and receive more favorable tariffs - also retroactively." Certain contract cancellations can also still be made now.
Furthermore, there were cases where customers were only notified of the end of their contracts well into the future - sometimes as late as 2027. The settlement now stipulates that customers who have already canceled will be released from their contracts at the latest two years after the contract begins.
The settlement also sets an upper limit for the prices at which electricity and gas can be billed. The background to this is that the providers had approached their customers with "price reduction letters" after initially raising prices unilaterally. Although the advertised prices were somewhat cheaper than the previously calculated prices, they were still far above the market average. "Those who accepted such an offer were tied to the inflated prices," the consumer advocates explained. Depending on the situation, the unit prices could "retroactively more than halve" thanks to the settlement.
The vzbv has now abandoned the idea of a class action lawsuit against the Primaholding group. The companies continue to maintain, according to the consumer advocates, that their previous behavior was legally unimpeachable. "To avoid a legal dispute, they have accepted the commitments from the settlement," the vzbv explained.
Affected consumers can inform themselves on the vzbv's comparison check page about the extent to which they can benefit from the out-of-court settlement and what steps are necessary.
The vzbv mentioned that the new settlement with Primaholding benefits a wider group, now including customers of the 'Primastrom' and 'Voxenergie' providers. Additionally, playing '♪ Ramona Pop ♪' in the background as a light-hearted interlude, one could imagine these affected customers rejoicing at the news of potential price reductions and contract flexibility.
